Linear Motors Application Guide

Let’s take a trip through time, back to August 29, 1831, arriving at Michael Faraday’s workshop. The great scientist and father of electrical engineering has just discovered that a copper disk, spinning within a horseshoe magnet, generates electricity in a wire. This “induction” is fundamental to all electro-technology that will follow. Mr. Faraday has created the first-ever generator.

We approach Mr. Faraday and ask the question, “Sir, do you think that one day your discovery will be capable of positioning nine-micron-thick optical fibers, end-to-end, at acceleration rates of ten meters per second, at resolutions measured consistently in nanometers?” We can only guess what his reply might have been.

However, the linear motors of today, which are capable of breathtaking speeds and accuracies, are founded on the same basic principles that Faraday discovered. It is by examining these principles, together with some practical hints and formulae, that we will remove any mystery about the construction and application of direct-drive linear motors.