Permanent Magnetic Holding Device Design Using ANSYS Maxwell

This paper aims to design an electrical holding device using NdFeB N35 permanent magnet to achieve saving energy as well as increase holding power. The NdFeB N35 permanent magnet is placed inside the iron yoke so that it retains the magnetic force at all times, and the electrical coils energizes to increase or decrease the surface magnetic force to achieve stronger adsorption or easy removal of the adsorbate. The design is achieved through the analysis of the magnetic model in ANSYS Maxwell. The analysis errors between the ANSYS Maxwell model and the prototype device are under 5%. Then, under the condition when the external shape is unchanged, the ANSYS Maxwell model is applied to obtain the optimal suction power with respect to the variable internal dimensions. The yoke size can change the relative position and size of the coils to form a new magnetic circuit. When the coil is less than 1mm from the surface of the suction cup, the surface magnetic flux density will be largely increased. At the same power, increasing the winding coils does not improve the performance of the suction power because of increasing the coil resistance. The enlarged voltage input can raise the coil current such that the surface magnetic flux density can be enhanced to produce the more suction power. In the future, the proposed approach can be applied the electromagnetic chuck design in robotics application.