Non-contacting conveyance of a steel plate using electromagnetic force by transverse flux linear motors

Abstract

To improve the quality of products in a steel making process, the realization of a non-contacting conveyance of a steel plate has been expected. To make the total system simple, we proposed a combined lift and propulsion system by transverse flux linear induction motors. By feeding the DC biased AC to the transverse flux linear induction motor, it is possible to realize an efficient combined lift and propulsion system with a simple structure. After showing the peculiarities of the system, conveyance experiments of a steel plate are carried out. In these experiments, the equivalent mass estimation method in which the levitation mass is estimated from the gap error is applied and the effect of the method is also shown.