Noncontact Levitation and Conveyance Characteristics of a Very Thin Steel Plate Magnetically Levitated by a LIM-Driven Cart

Although adopting magnetic levitation techniques in a process line for very thin steel plates is expected to maintain the high quality of the plate surfaces, the control for levitation and guidance has proved to be very difficult. However, we have already established a stable magnetic levitation and guidance system for very thin steel plates. In this paper, a noncontact conveyance system for the magnetically levitated very thin steel plates is introduced. To realize such a noncontact process line, we must obtain back and forth or right and left guidance force without any contact for a levitating and moving steel plate. This paper will show the possibility of realizing such a system for processing very thin steel plates, based on the results of various experiments.