Types of Electric Motors And Their Significance

The invention of motor has revolutionized the industrial world. Today, we have varieties of electric motors and each of them is meant to suit specific applications. Let us find some of the most commonly used, yet very important motors used in industrial area.

AC Motors This is the most common and simple industrial motor having three phase AC induction motor. This is designed with simply a series of three windings in the exterior section with a simple rotating section. The biggest advantage of using AC motor is that it is the lowest cost motor. These are extremely reliable in terms of their application and their maintenance.

Brushed DC Motors The design of Brushed DC motor is quite simple. The speed of these can be easily controlled by increasing or reducing the voltage, because the relationship is linear to the motor’s maximum aped. The higher will be the armature voltage, the faster will be the rotation. Torque control is also simple in a brushed DC motor because the output torque is proportional to current.

Brushless DC Motors The name may imply it is a DC motor, but actually it is an AC. It has a bit complex design, but it a great alternative over hr brushed DC motor. There are no brushes or commutator in the BLDC motor. Hence, it does not exhibit the arcing problems which are quite common in a brushed DC system.

Servo Motors This classification of motor is the smallest of all. These motors are typically used in robotics and are extremely useful. They are powerful compared to their size. A standard servo like Futaba S-148 has 42 oz/inches of torque, which is surprisingly strong for its size. Servo motors are used in radio controlled airplanes, radio controlled cars, puppets and robots.

Stepper Motors Stepper motors comprise of a doubly salient structure that is teeth on both the rotor and stator. These are essentially used in applications that require accurate position control. Stepper motors is a recent invention which is designed to replace expensive servo motors. The application of stepper motors are typically curbed to low speed position control applications only.

Linear Motors Linear electric systems are bit different than rest of its peers. Unlike other motors they do not produce a torque (rotation) rather they produce a linear force along its length. There are two types of linear - low-acceleration and high-acceleration linear motors. Low-acceleration linear is used for maglev trains and other ground-based transportation applications. Whereas high-acceleration linear motors are short and have design that accelerate an object to a very high speed.