Comparison and prediction of performance index of permanent magnet linear motor

Recently, linear motor has gained popularity to be used in a linear motion system. Compared to the traditional system that uses a rotary motor coupled with a motion translation system, the linear motor offers a better dynamic performance by producing a direct linear motion and eliminates mechanical limitations. Recently, due to greater performance, most researchers are focused on the design and development of the permanent magnet linear motor (PMLM). Various types of PMLMs were designed and their performances were compared to each other. Generally, the performances of the PMLMs were compared using thrust, F. However, the thrust was dependent on other parameters such as current, i, input power, p and volume, V
mot
. Therefore, in order to create a valid comparison, these parameters need to be normalized. Hence, other performance characteristics such as thrust constant, K
f
, motor constant, k
^m
and motor constant square density, G have been used as the performance index. In this paper, the performance comparisons of PMLM were discussed through an actual performance data from a commercialized PMLM. A limit performance index against volume, V
mot
was established for performance estimation and the benchmarking of the PMLM. Furthermore, comparisons of different types of PMLM were also discussed.