Magnetic levitation systems for cost-sensitive applications

Alongside technical performance features, low system costs are the highest priority in the field of low-power electric drives. This makes adoption of magnetic bearing technologies difficult in applications with higher production volumes. Achieving success in such cost-sensitive applications requires abandoning classical magnetic bearing designs and simplifying magnetically suspended drive systems by using mechatronic approaches. This paper presents ideas and stimuli in relation to meeting the demands for high-scale integration and cost-reducing design measures. Three examples selected from recent and current research and development projects of the mechatronic research center LCM and Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU), Austria, illustrate conceptual simplifications of magnetic bearing systems and permanent magnet synchronous drives, and their integrative combinations.