Contactless power supply for magnetically levitated elevator systems

Magnetically levitated vehicles need a contactless energy transmission system to supply on-board components without physical contact to a guiding rail. In contrast to stand-alone contactless power supply (CPS) systems this paper introduces a combined CPS and electromagnetic guiding system (MGS). The inductive energy transmission is realized by utilizing the magnetic circuit of an actuator of the linear guiding. With this approach two devices are combined into one entity. The hybrid actuator consists of an omega shape iron yoke with permanent magnets and coils on its lateral arms. A concentrated primary winding is added to the guide rail and a coil wound around the central arm of the omega actuator functions as secondary winding. Hereby a superposition of the MGS flux and the CPS flux emerges in the magnetic circuit of the actuator and the transmission path is established. The proposed system requires less construction space and weight compared to existing energy transmission systems.