Investigation of the forces produced by a new electromagnetic planar actuator

A novel electromagnetic planar actuator has been investigated. This type of actuator can be used in positioning systems that require bi-dimensional movement over a plane, e.g. printed circuits movers and numerically controlled (NC) machines. Its design comes as an interesting option to replace the well-known xy tables based on two rotary or on two linear motors since it uses a single actuator to produce planar movement. The position of its mover depends on the resultant force vector. This paper analyses the static forces numerically obtained and compares them to the experimental results measured by means of specifically designed test setup