AC Motors - Hansen Motor Corp.

AC Motors

AC motors are also knows as alternating current motors and include single / multiphase, universal, servo, induction, synchronous, and gearmotor types. An electromagnet which is powered by the same AC voltage as the motor coil produces the magnetic field generated by AC motors. Field coils are the coils that produce the magnetic field and the armature refers to the coils and the solid rotating core.

One major advantage of using AC motors is the wide availability of AC power. AC motors generally cost less than DC motors. Brushes or commutators can cause problems of maintenance and wear, which is another advantage to AC motors that don't use these. This also eliminates the problem of sparking, which can be dangerous. They also work well in constant-speed applications, because its speed is determined by the frequency of the AC voltage applied to the motor terminals.

A synchronous and synchronous motors are the two main categories of ac motors. The induction motor is a common form of asynchronous motor and is basically an ac transformer with a rotating secondary. The primary winding (stator) is connected to the power source and the shorted secondary (rotor) carries the induced secondary current. Torque is produced by the action of the rotor (secondary) currents on the air-gap flux. The synchronous motor differs greatly in design and operational characteristics, and is considered a separate class of motor.

The two types of AC motors are synchronous and induction. A synchronous motor consists of a series of three windings in the stator section with a simple rotating area. A current is passed through the coil, generating torque on the coil. Since the current is alternating, the motor will run smoothly only at the frequency of the sine wave. This allows for constant, unvarying speed from no load to full load with no slip.

Induction motors are the more common of the two types. They use electric current to induce rotation in the coils rather than supplying the rotation directly. Induction motors use shorted wire loops on a rotating armature and obtain their torque from currents induced in these loops by the changing magnetic field produced in the field coils.