Design and Development of a Planar Electromagnetic Conveyor for the Microfactory

This paper presents a planar electromagnetic conveyor for a microfactory. The uniqueness of the conveyor design lies in its arrangement of overlapped two-dimensional mesh coils in matrix configuration that enables to drive a mobile part over long strokes. The conveyor architecture includes a fixed part, which consists of 5 × 5 matrix design that has been fabricated on a multilayer printed circuit board. An analytical model that takes into account the electromagnetic and friction effects has been developed. A conveyor prototype has been fabricated and experimentally characterized in open-loop control. Linear and planar motions, positioning repeatability error, straightness error, and rotation have been experimentally measured. From experimental results, the proposed architecture enables long linear displacement strokes (≤70 mm) and rotation (≤±12.37°). In addition, a 12 mm/s speed can be achieved for the mobile part at a nominal current of 0.8 A.