ratings in the millions of watts.

Electric
motors may be classified by the source of
electric power, by their internal
TERM PAPER construction, by their application, or by
the type of motion they give.
ELE 102
The physical principle of production of
TOPIC: DC motor mechanical force by the interactions of an
electric current and a magnetic field was
NAME: Moyukh Mukherjee known as early as 1821. Electric motors of
increasing efficiency were constructed
throughout the 19th century, but
SECTION: E4911 commercial exploitation of electric motors
on a large scale required efficient
ROLL NO: A26 electrical generators and electrical
distribution networks.
SUBMITTED TO:
Mr. Ashish Sharma Some devices, such as magnetic solenoids
and loudspeakers, although they generate
some mechanical power, are not generally
referred to as electric motors, and are
ELECTRIC MOTORS usually termed actuators[1] and transducers,
[2]
respectively.
An electric motor converts electrical
energy into mechanical energy. Electric
motors operate through interacting
magnetic fields and current-carrying
conductors to generate force, although a
few use electrostatic forces. The reverse
process, producing electrical energy from
mechanical energy, is accomplished by an
alternator, generator or dynamo. Many
types of electric motors can be run as
generators, and vice versa. For example a
starter/generator for a gas turbine, or
traction motors used on vehicles, often
perform both tasks.

Electric motors are found in applications

as diverse as industrial fans, blowers and
pumps, machine tools, household
appliances, power tools, and disk drives.
They may be powered by direct current
(e.g., a battery powered portable device or
motor vehicle), or by alternating current
from a central electrical distribution grid.
The smallest motors may be found in
electric wristwatches. Medium-size motors
of highly standardized dimensions and
characteristics provide convenient
mechanical power for industrial uses. The DC Motors
very largest electric motors are used for
propulsion of large ships, and for such
purposes as pipeline compressors, with
A DC motor is designed to run on DC
electric power. Two examples of pure DC
designs are Michael Faraday's homopolar
motor (which is uncommon), and the ball
bearing motor, which is (so far) a novelty.
By far the most common DC motor types
are the brushed and brushless types, which
use internal and external commutation
respectively to create an oscillating AC
current from the DC source—so they are
not purely DC machines in a strict sense.
TYPES OF DC MOTOR
A DC motor is an electric motor that runs
on direct current (DC) electricity.
Synchronous DC motor
Synchronous DC motors, such as the
brushless DC motor and the stepper motor,
require external commutation to generate
torque. They lock up if driven directly by
DC power. However, BLDC motors are
more similar to a synchronous ac motor.
Uncommutated DC motor
Other types of DC motors require no
commutation.
• homopolar motor-A homopolar
motor has a magnetic field along
the axis of rotation and an electric
current that at some point is not
parallel to the magnetic field. The
name homopolar refers to the
absence of polarity change.
Homopolar motors necessarily have a
single-turn coil, which limits them to very
low voltages. This has restricted the
practical application of this type of motor.
• ball bearing motor-A ball bearing
motor is an unusual electric motor
that consists of two ball-bearing-
type bearings, with the inner races
mounted on a common conductive
shaft, and the outer races
connected to a high current, low
voltage power supply. An
alternative construction fits the
outer races inside a metal tube,
while the inner races are mounted
on a shaft with a non-conductive
section (e.g. two sleeves on an
insulating rod). This method has
the advantage that the tube will act
as a flywheel. The direction of
rotation is determined by the initial
spin which is usually required to
get it going.
Brushed DC motors
DC motor design generates an oscillating
current in a wound rotor, or armature, with
a split ring commutator, and either a
wound or permanent magnet stator. A
rotor consists of one or more coils of wire
wound around a core on a shaft; an
electrical power source is connected to the
rotor coil through the commutator and its
brushes, causing current to flow in it,
producing electromagnetism. The
commutator causes the current in the coils
to be switched as the rotor turns, keeping
the magnetic poles of the rotor from ever
fully aligning with the magnetic poles of
the stator field, so that the rotor never
stops (like a compass needle does) but
rather keeps rotating indefinitely (as long
as power is applied and is sufficient for the
motor to overcome the shaft torque load
and internal losses due to friction, etc.)
Many of the limitations of the classic
commutator DC motor are due to the need
for brushes to press against the
commutator. This creates friction. Sparks
are created by the brushes making and
breaking circuits through the rotor coils as
the brushes cross the insulating gaps
between commutator sections. Depending
on the commutator design, this may
include the brushes shorting together
adjacent sections—and hence coil ends—
momentarily while crossing the gaps.
Furthermore, the inductance of the rotor
coils causes the voltage across each to rise
when its circuit is opened, increasing the
sparking of the brushes. This sparking
limits the maximum speed of the machine,
as too-rapid sparking will overheat, erode,
or even melt the commutator. The current
density per unit area of the brushes, in
combination with their resistivity, limits
the output of the motor. The making and
breaking of electric contact also causes
electrical noise, and the sparks
additionally cause RFI. Brushes eventually
wear out and require replacement, and the
commutator itself is subject to wear and
maintenance (on larger motors) or
replacement (on small motors). The
commutator assembly on a large motor is a
costly element, requiring precision
assembly of many parts. On small motors,
the commutator is usually permanently
integrated into the rotor, so replacing it
usually requires replacing the whole rotor.
Large brushes are desired for a larger
brush contact area to maximize motor
output, but small brushes are desired for
low mass to maximize the speed at which
the motor can run without the brushes
excessively bouncing and sparking
(comparable to the problem of "valve
float" in internal combustion engines).
(Small brushes are also desirable for lower
cost.) Stiffer brush springs can also be
used to make brushes of a given mass
work at a higher speed, but at the cost of
greater friction losses (lower efficiency)
and accelerated brush and commutator
wear. Therefore, DC motor brush design
entails a trade-off between output power,
speed, and efficiency/wear.
A: shunt
B: series
C: compound
f = field coil
There are five types of brushed DC motor:
A. DC shunt wound motor
B. DC series wound motor
C. DC compound motor (two
configurations):
• Cumulative compound
• Differentially compounded
D. Permanent Magnet DC Motor (not
shown)
E. Separately excited (sepex) (not shown).
Brushless DC motors
Some of the problems of the brushed DC
motor are eliminated in the brushless
design. In this motor, the mechanical
"rotating switch" or commutator/brushgear
assembly is replaced by an external
electronic switch synchronised to the
rotor's position. Brushless motors are
typically 85-90% efficient or more (higher
efficiency for a brushless electric motor of
up to 96.5% were reported by researchers
at the Tokai University in Japan in 2009),
[17]
whereas DC motors with brushgear are
typically 75-80% efficient.
Midway between ordinary DC motors and
stepper motors lies the realm of the
brushless DC motor. Built in a fashion
very similar to stepper motors, these often
use a permanent magnet external rotor,
three phases of driving coils, one or more
Hall effect sensors to sense the position of
the rotor, and the associated drive
electronics. The coils are activated, one
phase after the other, by the drive
electronics as cued by the signals from
either Hall effect sensors or from the back
EMF (electromotive force) of the undriven
coils. In effect, they act as three-phase
synchronous motors containing their own
variable-frequency drive electronics. A
specialized class of brushless DC motor
controllers utilize EMF feedback through
the main phase connections instead of Hall
effect sensors to determine position and
velocity. These motors are used
extensively in electric radio-controlled
vehicles. When configured with the
magnets on the outside, these are referred
to by modellers as outrunner motors.
Brushless DC motors are commonly used
where precise speed control is necessary,
as in computer disk drives or in video
cassette recorders, the spindles within CD,
CD-ROM (etc.) drives, and mechanisms
within office products such as fans, laser
printers and photocopiers. They have
several advantages over conventional
motors:
• Compared to AC fans using
shaded-pole motors, they are very
efficient, running much cooler than
the equivalent AC motors. This
cool operation leads to much-
improved life of the fan's bearings.
• Without a commutator to wear out,
the life of a DC brushless motor
can be significantly longer
compared to a DC motor using
brushes and a commutator.
Commutation also tends to cause a
great deal of electrical and RF
noise; without a commutator or
brushes, a brushless motor may be
used in electrically sensitive
devices like audio equipment or
computers.
• The same Hall effect sensors that
provide the commutation can also
provide a convenient tachometer
signal for closed-loop control
(servo-controlled) applications. In
fans, the tachometer signal can be
used to derive a "fan OK" signal.
• The motor can be easily
synchronized to an internal or
external clock, leading to precise
speed control.
• Brushless motors have no chance
of sparking, unlike brushed motors,
making them better suited to
environments with volatile
chemicals and fuels. Also, sparking
generates ozone which can
accumulate in poorly ventilated
buildings risking harm to
occupants' health.
• Brushless motors are usually used
in small equipment such as
computers and are generally used
to get rid of unwanted heat.
• They are also very quiet motors
which is an advantage if being
used in equipment that is affected
by vibrations.
Modern DC brushless motors range in
power from a fraction of a watt to many
kilowatts. Larger brushless motors up to
about 100 kW rating are used in electric
vehicles. They also find significant use in
high-performance electric model aircraft.
Coreless or ironless DC motors
Nothing in the design of any of the motors
described above requires that the iron
(steel) portions of the rotor actually rotate;
torque is exerted only on the windings of
the electromagnets. Taking advantage of
this fact is the coreless or ironless DC
motor, a specialized form of a brush or
brushless DC motor. Optimized for rapid
acceleration, these motors have a rotor that
is constructed without any iron core. The
rotor can take the form of a winding-filled
cylinder, or a self-supporting structure
comprising only the magnet wire and the
bonding material. The rotor can fit inside
the stator magnets; a magnetically soft
stationary cylinder inside the rotor
provides a return path for the stator
magnetic flux. A second arrangement has
the rotor winding basket surrounding the
stator magnets. In that design, the rotor fits
inside a magnetically soft cylinder that can
serve as the housing for the motor, and
likewise provides a return path for the
flux.
Because the rotor is much lighter in weight
(mass) than a conventional rotor formed
from copper windings on steel
laminations, the rotor can accelerate much
more rapidly, often achieving a
mechanical time constant under 1 ms. This
is especially true if the windings use
aluminum rather than the heavier copper.
But because there is no metal mass in the
rotor to act as a heat sink, even small
coreless motors must often be cooled by
forced air.
Related limited-travel actuators have no
core and a bonded coil placed between the
poles of high-flux thin permanent
magnets. These are the fast head
positioners for rigid-disk ("hard disk")
drives.
Printed Armature or Pancake DC drives, in the burgeoning computer
Motors industry. Pancake motors are still widely
used in high-performance servo-controlled
A rather unusual motor design the systems, humanoid robotic systems,
pancake/printed armature motor has the industrial automation and medical devices.
windings shaped as a disc running Due to the variety of constructions now
between arrays of high-flux magnets, available the technology is used in
arranged in a circle, facing the rotor and applications from high temperature
forming an axial air gap. This design is military to low cost pump and basic servo
commonly known the pancake motor applications.
because of its extremely flat profile,
although the technology has had many SOME MORE TYPES OF DC
brand names since its inception, such as MOTOR
ServoDisc.
The illustrations below schematically
The printed armature (originally formed show the different methods of connecting
on a printed circuit board) in a printed the field and armature circuits in a DC
armature motor is made from punched motor. The circular symbol represents the
copper sheets that are laminated together armature circuit, and the squares at the
using advanced composites to form a thin side of the circle represent the brush
rigid disc. The printed armature has a commutator system. The direction of the
unique construction, in the brushed motor arrows indicates the direction of the
world, in that it does not have a separate magnetic fields.
ring commutator. The brushes run directly
on the armature surface making the whole Externally -
design very compact. Excited DC
Motor
An alternative manufacturing method is to
use wound copper wire laid flat with a This type of
central conventional commutator, in a DC motor is
flower and petal shape. The windings are constructed
typically stabilized by being impregnated such that the
with electrical epoxy potting systems. field is not
These are filled epoxies that have connected to
moderate mixed viscosity and a long gel the armature.
time. They are highlighted by low This type of
shrinkage and low exotherm, and are DC motor is
typically UL 1446 recognized as a potting not normally
compound for use up to 180°C (Class H) used.
(UL File No. E 210549).
Shunt DC
The unique advantage of ironless DC Motor
motors is that there is no cogging
(vibration caused by attraction between the The motor is
iron and the magnets) and parasitic eddy called a
currents cannot form in the rotor as it is "shunt" motor
totally ironless. This can greatly improve because the
efficiency, but variable-speed controllers field is in
must use a higher switching rate parallel, or
(>40 kHz) or direct current because of the "shunts" the
decreased electromagnetic induction. armature.

These motors were originally invented to

drive the capstan(s) of magnetic tape
Series DC hanging wire was dipped into a pool of
Motor mercury, on which a permanent magnet
was placed. When a current was passed
The motor through the wire, the wire rotated around
field windings the magnet, showing that the current gave
for a series rise to a close circular magnetic field
motor are in around the wire.[4] This motor is often
series with the demonstrated in school physics classes,
armature. but brine (salt water) is sometimes used in
place of the toxic mercury. This is the
Compound
simplest form of a class of devices called
DC Motor
homopolar motors. A later refinement is
the Barlow's Wheel. These were
A compounded
demonstration devices only, unsuited to
DC motor is
practical applications due to their primitive
constructed so
construction.[citation needed]
that it contains
both a shunt
and a series
field. This
particular
schematic
shows a
cumulatively-
compounded"
DC motor Jedlik's "electromagnetic self-rotor", 1827.
because the (Museum of Applied Arts, Budapest. The
shunt and historic motor still works perfectly
series fields today.In 1827, Hungarian physicist Ányos
are aiding one Jedlik started experimenting with devices
another. he called "electromagnetic self-rotors".
Compounded Although they were used only for
DC Motor instructional purposes, in 1828 Jedlik
demonstrated the first device to contain
Compound DC the three main components of practical
Motor is also direct current motors: the stator, rotor and
called a commutator. The device employed no
"differentially- permanent magnets, as the magnetic fields
compounded" of both the stationary and revolving
DC motor components were produced solely by the
because the currents flowing through their windings.
shunt and
series field
oppose one PRINCIPLE OF OPERATION
another
Principles of operation

In any electric motor, operation is based

The principle
The conversion of electrical energy into
mechanical energy by a electromagnetic
means was demonstrated by the British
scientist Michael Faraday in 1821. A free-
on simple electromagnetism. A current-
carrying conductor generates a magnetic
field; when this is then placed in an
external magnetic field, it will experience
a force proportional to the current in the
conductor, and to the strength of the
external magnetic field. As you are well The geometry
aware of from playing with magnets as a of the brushes,
kid, opposite (North and South) polarities commutator
attract, while like polarities (North and contacts, and
North, South and South) repel. The rotor windings
internal configuration of a DC motor is are such that
designed to harness the magnetic when power is
interaction between a current-carrying applied, the
conductor and an external magnetic field polarities of
to generate rotational motion. the energized
winding and
Let's start by looking at a simple 2-pole the stator
DC electric motor (here red represents a magnet(s) are
magnet or winding with a "North" misaligned,
polarization, while green represents a and the rotor
magnet or winding with a "South" will rotate
polarization). until it is
almost aligned
with the
stator's field
magnets. As
the rotor
reaches
alignment, the
brushes move
to the next
commutator
contacts, and
Every DC motor has six basic parts -- axle, energize the
rotor (a.k.a., armature), stator, next winding.
commutator, field magnet(s), and brushes. Given our
In most common DC motors (and all that example two-
BEAMers will see), the external magnetic pole motor,
field is produced by high-strength the rotation
permanent magnets1. The stator is the reverses the
stationary part of the motor -- this includes direction of
the motor casing, as well as two or more current
permanent magnet pole pieces. The rotor through the
(together with the axle and attached rotor winding,
commutator) rotate with respect to the leading to a
stator. The rotor consists of windings "flip" of the
(generally on a core), the windings being rotor's
electrically connected to the commutator. magnetic field,
The above diagram shows a common driving it to
motor layout -- with the rotor inside the continue
stator (field) magnets. rotating.

In real life,
though, DC
motors will
always have
more than two
poles (three is
a very
common torque it could
number). In produce is
particular, this cyclic with the
avoids "dead position of the
spots" in the rotor).
commutator.
You can So since most small DC motors are of a
imagine how three-pole design, let's tinker with the
with our workings of one via an interactive
example two- animation (JavaScript required):
pole motor, if
the rotor is
exactly at the
middle of its
rotation
(perfectly
aligned with
the field
magnets), it
will get
"stuck" there.
Meanwhile, You'll notice a few things from this --
with a two- namely, one pole is fully energized at a
pole motor, time (but two others are "partially"
there is a energized). As each brush transitions from
moment where one commutator contact to the next, one
the coil's field will rapidly collapse, as the
commutator next coil's field will rapidly charge up (this
shorts out the occurs within a few microsecond). We'll
power supply see more about the effects of this later, but
(i.e., both in the meantime you can see that this is a
brushes touch direct result of the coil windings' series
both wiring:
commutator
contacts
simultaneousl
y). This would
be bad for the
power supply,
waste energy,
and damage
motor
components as
well. Yet
another
disadvantage
of such a
simple motor There's
is that it would probably no
exhibit a high better way to
amount of see how an
torque "ripple" average DC
(the amount of motor is put
 together, than relatively high inertia which limits motor
by just acceleration. This construction also results
opening one in high winding inductances which limit
up. brush and commutator life.
Unfortunately
this is tedious In small motors, an alternative design is
work, as well often used which features a 'coreless'
as requiring armature winding. This design depends
the upon the coil wire itself for structural
destruction of integrity. As a result, the armature is
a perfectly hollow, and the permanent magnet can be
good motor. mounted inside the rotor coil. Coreless DC
motors have much lower armature
Luckily for inductance than iron-core motors of
you, I've gone comparable size, extending brush and
ahead and commutator life.
done this in
your stead.
The guts of a
disassembled
Mabuchi FF-
030-PN motor
(the same
model that Diagram courtesy of MicroMo
Solarbotics
sells) are The coreless design also allows
available for manufacturers to build smaller motors;
you to see meanwhile, due to the lack of iron in their
here (on 10 rotors, coreless motors are somewhat
lines / cm prone to overheating. As a result, this
graph paper). design is generally used just in small, low-
This is a basic power motors. BEAMers will most often
3-pole DC see coreless DC motors in the form of
motor, with 2 pager motors.
brushes and
three Again,
commutator disassembling
contacts. a coreless
motor can be
The use of an iron core armature (as in the instructive --
Mabuchi, above) is quite common, and has in this case,
a number of advantages2. First off, the iron my hapless
core provides a strong, rigid support for victim was a
the windings -- a particularly important cheap pager
consideration for high-torque motors. The vibrator
core also conducts heat away from the motor. The
rotor windings, allowing the motor to be guts of this
driven harder than might otherwise be the disassembled
case. Iron core construction is also motor are
relatively inexpensive compared with available for
other construction types. you to see
here (on 10
But iron core construction also has several lines / cm
disadvantages. The iron armature has a graph paper).
 This is (or
more
accurately,
was) a 3-pole
coreless DC
motor.
Slip ring
The slip ring is a component of the wound
rotor motor as an induction machine (best
evidenced by the construction of the
common automotive alternator), where the
rotor comprises a set of coils that are
electrically terminated in slip rings. These
are metal rings rigidly mounted on the
rotor, and combined with brushes (as used
with commutators), provide continuous
unswitched connection to the rotor
windings.
In the case of the wound-rotor induction
motor, external impedances can be
connected to the brushes. The stator is
excited similarly to the standard squirrel
cage motor. By changing the impedance
connected to the rotor circuit, the
speed/current and speed/torque curves can
be altered.
(Slip rings are most-commonly used in
automotive alternators as well as in
synchro angular data-transmission devices,
among other applications.)
The slip ring motor is used primarily to
start a high inertia load or a load that
requires a very high starting torque across
the full speed range. By correctly selecting
the resistors used in the secondary
resistance or slip ring starter, the motor is
able to produce maximum torque at a
relatively low supply current from zero
speed to full speed. This type of motor
also offers controllable speed.
Motor speed can be changed because the
torque curve of the motor is effectively
modified by the amount of resistance
connected to the rotor circuit. Increasing
the value of resistance will move the speed
of maximum torque down. If the resistance
connected to the rotor is increased beyond
the point where the maximum torque
occurs at zero speed, the torque will be
further reduced.
When used with a load that has a torque
curve that increases with speed, the motor
will operate at the speed where the torque
developed by the motor is equal to the
load torque. Reducing the load will cause
the motor to speed up, and increasing the
load will cause the motor to slow down
until the load and motor torque are equal.
Operated in this manner, the slip losses are
dissipated in the secondary resistors and
can be very significant. The speed
regulation and net efficiency is also very
poor.
DC motor behavior
At a simplistic level, using DC motors is
pretty straightforward -- you put power in,
and get rotary motion out. Life, of course,
is never this simple -- there are a number
of subtleties of DC motor behavior that
should be accounted for in BEAMbot
design.
High-speed output
This is the simplest trait to understand and
treat -- most DC motors run at very high
output speeds (generally thousands or tens
of thousands of RPM). While this is fine
for some BEAMbots (say, photopoppers
or solarrollers), many BEAMbots
(walkers, heads) require lower speeds --
you must put gears on your DC motor's
output for these applications.
Back EMF
Just as putting voltage across a wire in a
magnetic field can generate motion,
moving a wire through a magnetic field
can generate voltage. This means that as a
DC motor's rotor spins, it generates
voltage -- the output voltage is known as
back EMF. Because of back EMF, a spark
is created at the commutator as a motor's
brushes switch from contact to contact.
Meanwhile, back EMF can damage
sensitive circuits when a motor is stopped
suddenly.
Noise (ripple) on power lines
A number of things will cause a DC motor
to put noise on its power lines:
commutation noise (a function of brush /
commutator design & construction),
roughness in bearings (via back EMF), and
gearing roughness (via back EMF, if the
motor is part of a gearmotor) are three big
contributors.
Even without these avoidable factors, any
electric motor will put noise on its power
lines by virtue of the fact that its current
draw is not constant throughout its motion.
Going back to our example two-pole
motor, its current draw will be a function
of the angle between its rotor coil and field
magnets:
Since most small DC motors have 3 coils,
the coils' current curves will overlay each
other:
Added together, this ideal motor's current
will then look something like this:
Reality is a bit more complex than this, as
even a high-quality motor will display a
current transient at each commutation
transition. Since each coil has inductance
(by definition) and some capacitance,
there will be a surge of current as the
commutator's brushes first touch a coil's
contact, and another as the brushes leave
the contact (here, there's a slight spark as
the coil's magnetic field collapses).
As a good example, consider an
oscilloscope trace of the current through a
Mabuchi FF-030PN motor supplied with 2
V (1ms per horizontal division, 0.05 mA
per vertical division):
In this case, the peak-to-peak current
ripple is approximately 0.29 mA, while the
average motor current is just under 31 mA.
So under these conditions, the motor puts
about less than 1% of current ripple onto
its power lines (and as you can see from
the "clean" traces, it outputs essentially no
high-frequency current noise). Note that
since this is a 3-pole motor, and each coil
is energized in both directions over the
course of a rotor rotation, one revolution
of the rotor will correspond to six of the
above curves (here, 6 x 2.4 ms = 0.0144
sec, corresponding to a motor rotation rate
of just under 4200 RPM).
Motor power ripple can wreak havoc in
Nv nets by destabilizing them
inadvertently. Fortunately, this can be
mitigated by putting a small capacitor
across the motor's power lines (you'll only
be able to filter out "spikey" transients this
way, though -- you'll always see curves
like the ones above being imposed on your
power). On the flip side of this coin, motor
power ripple can be put to good use -- as
was shown above, ripple frequency can be
used to measure motor speed, and its
destabilizing tendencies can be used to
reverse a motor without the need for
discrete "back-up" sensors.
To scope out what motor is best for a
given BEAM application, we'll need to do
some math -- let's move on to DC motor
performance parameters.
Efficiency
To calculate a motor's efficiency, the
mechanical output power is divided by the
electrical input power:
,
where η is energy conversion efficiency,
Pe is electrical input power, and Pm is
mechanical output power.
In simplest case Pe = VI, and Pm = Tω,
where V is input voltage, I is input current,
T is output torque, and ω is output angular
velocity. It is possible to derive
analytically the point of maximum
efficiency. It is typically at less than 1/2
the stall torque.
Implications
Because a DC motor operates most
efficiently at less than 1/2 its stall torque,
an "oversized" motor runs with the highest
efficiency: using a bigger motor than
necessary enables the motor to operate
closest to no load, or peak operating
conditions.
Materials
There is an impending shortage of many
rare raw materials used in the manufacture
of hybrid and electric cars (Nishiyama
2007) (Cox 2008). For example, the rare
earth element dysprosium is required to
fabricate many of the advanced electric
motors used in hybrid cars (Cox 2008).
However, over 95% of the world's rare
earth elements are mined in China (Haxel
et al. 2005), and domestic Chinese
consumption is expected to consume
China's entire supply by 2012 (Cox 2008).
[citation needed]
While permanent magnet motors, favored
in hybrids such as those made by Toyota,
often use rare earth materials in their
magnets, AC traction motors used in
production electric vehicles such as the
GM EV1, Toyota RAV4 EV and Tesla
Roadster do not use permanent magnets or
the associated rare earth materials. AC
motors typically use conventional copper
wire for their stator coils and copper or
aluminum rods or bars for their rotor. AC
motors do not significantly use rare earth
materials.
USES OF DC MOTORS
Electric motors are used in many, if not
most, modern machines. Obvious uses
would be in rotating machines such as
fans, turbines, drills, the wheels on electric
cars, locomotives and conveyor belts.
Also, in many vibrating or oscillating
machines, an electric motor spins an
irregular figure with more area on one side
of the axle than the other, causing it to
appear to be moving up and down.
Electric motors are also popular in
robotics. They are used to turn the wheels
of vehicular robots, and servo motors are
used to turn arms and legs in humanoid
robots. In flying robots, along with
helicopters, a motor causes a propeller or
wide, flat blades to spin and create lift
force, allowing vertical motion.
Electric motors are replacing hydraulic
cylinders in airplanes and military
equipment.
In industrial and manufacturing
businesses, electric motors are used to turn
saws and blades in cutting and slicing
processes, and to spin gears and mixers
(the latter very common in food
manufacturing). Linear motors are often
used to push products into containers
horizontally.
Many kitchen appliances also use electric
motors to accomplish various jobs. Food
processors and grinders spin blades to
chop and break up foods. Blenders use
electric motors to mix liquids, and
microwave ovens use motors to turn the
tray food sits on. Toaster ovens also use
electric motors to turn a conveyor to move
food over heating elements.
DC Motors are argueably the most useful
type of electrical motors, and with good
reason, they are designed to be used with
batteries, solar cells or similar cell based
energy sources, and as a result are used in
systems where you don't have to be tied to
a wall. Furthermore, even in systems
where they are tied to the wall, sometimes
it can be more efficient and cost effective
to run DC Motors even in certain
situations. Motors generally though give
the impression of a gas guzzling car. In
this article, I hope to dispel that myth, and
educate you on where and when DC
Motors can be and are used.
Low Power DC Motors
The lower power motors aren't really
useful for things commonly associated
with motors. Lifting and transportation
applications require more power & torque
for them to work. However, what they lack
in power they make up in precision. Low
power DC motors are particularly useful
as speed changes from 0 to 1 are almost
instantaneous. Therefore, they can be used
successfully in digital systems.
A low speed, low power brushless DC
motor can be found in most turntable
devices, particularly precision turntable
devices. Devices with such motors are
things like personal computers
(usually, with 3 motors in it, one for the
hard drive, and one for the processor
cooler), CD & DVD players.
Medium Power DC Motors
Medium power DC Motors have a use too
in systems. Generally they are connected
to the mains, and use a rectifier to convert
the AC current into a DC current to be
used for the task in hand. As a result of
this, they also need to be stepped down
(voltage reduced) so that the current
doesn't overpower the circuit and burn out
the motor. This limits their usage to larger
systems that require room for both a
stepper and a rectifier. But they still serve
a purpose, particularly in systems where
size nor speed is an issue, just reliability.
One such place is in pinsetters in a
bowling alley, for example.
High Power DC Motors
Argueably the most common and useful
motors are High Power DC Motors. These
motors are generally used in open systems,
and generally used in systems were torque
and power, as well as drive are paramount.
Examples of such systems include electric
wheelchairs, electric scooters, Segways,
hybrid cars, as well as in elevators.
Of course, with power comes great power
usage, and whilst the most energy efficient
form of motor, they can require a lot of
energy to run. Part of the creative process
of using them is to be efficient (drive
systems in hybrid cars use the petrol
motor's momentum to recharge a battery,
which will be then used to power the DC
motor), but generally the battery will need
to be recharged or replaced at regular
intervals.
REFERENCES:
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_mo
tor
 www.toolingu.com/class-460230-
dc-motor-applications.html
 www.articlesbase.com ›
Automotive
 www.solarbotics.net/...dcmotor/20
0111_dcmotor2.html
 nptel.iitm.ac.in/courses/IIT-
MADRAS/...I/pdfs/2_8.pdf
 www.toolingu.com/class-460230-
dc-motor-applications.html