Abstract
A universal motor, which is mainly used in vacuum cleaners, generates commutation sparks at the moment when the brush and the commutator segment are separated from each other during rotation. This study investigates the mechanism of commutation spark generation by analyzing high-speed camera images and its electrical aspect. We invented a new external trigger method that used laser light as the trigger signal for the shuttering a high-speed camera. This method enabled us to photograph sparks on any desired commutator segments during high-speed rotation, and that made the analysis after photographing easier. This paper shows that commutation sparks in universal motors are generated on every other commutator segment and at the peak of pulses in the voltage between the brush and commutator segment. Other aspects are also clarified, such as the generation of the singular and plural number of sparks on one commutator segment at a time, the time from the moment of spark generation to extinction, and spark generation during a single rotation.
