Design and control characteristics of guidance system for passive maglev transport system

Recent OLED display manufacturing process requires non-contact conveyor systems not generating particles to increase productivity. To avoid supplying power and heating in vacuum, a passive maglev transport system can be a promising solution because it has no actuators in moving carriers and all actuating electromagnets are installed on the ground. In this paper, we deal with the design and control characteristics of the guidance system for the passive maglev transport system. The proposed guidance system can generate bi-directional motion using one electromagnet and the guidance system is designed and analyzed in details using FEM tools. The guidance control characteristics were analyzed through impact tests using the manufactured passive maglev transport system.