Development of a novel axial-flux claw pole machine with soft magnetic composite core

By using the powder metallurgy technology and magnetic isotropy characteristic of the soft magnetic composite (SMC) material, various kinds of the complex structure permanent magnet synchronous machines (PMSMs) can be designed and fabricated easily e.g., axial-flux machine, claw pole machine (CPM) and transverse-flux machine (TFM). With the global coil applied in the CPM and TFM, the CPM and TFM has higher torque density than other PMSMs. As a special PMSM, the axial flux PMSMS can provide the relatively high power density and excellent efficiency as well. In this paper, a novel axial-flux claw pole machine (AFCPM) with SMC core is developed, which combines the merits of the axial flux machine and CPM. To show the advantages of AFCPM, there is a performance comparison between this motor and the outer rotor TFM. It can be found that the AFCPM with NdFeB excitation has higher torque ability and lower cogging torque than that of outer rotor TFM, while the AFCPM with ferrite magnet is a good candidate for low cost application.