Static Measurement of a Contactless Electromagnetic Isolator Adaptive to Variable Payload Mass

This paper presents measured force-position relation of a contactless electromagnetic isolator which has been realized recently. This isolator is designed to produce high vertical force used to support a payload by interactions between permanent magnets, and at meanwhile, stiffness (force derivative over position) along the three Cartesian axes are minimized which facilitates vibration isolation. In addition, the produced vertical force can be manipulated by varying air-gap between the permanent magnets. Experimental measurements show that, when the payload mass varies from 520 kg to 640 kg, the isolator stiffness remains sufficiently low and the corresponding natural frequencies do not change much.