Force Characteristics of the H-Module Linear Actuator With Varying Tooth-Shift-Distance

The large normal force of a single-sided linear actuator may cause vibration, noise and reduce the positioning accuracy. To overcome these disadvantages, a new H-module linear actuator (HMLA) is proposed to reduce effectively the normal force without using expensive air suspension system or assisted guide. Compared to the existing HMLA, the teeth on the two opposite sides of the stator of this new HMLA are shifted by a tooth-shift-distance t_{\rm sd} . With a proper choice of t_{\rm sd} , the electromagnetic design and the force characteristics of the HMLA may be greatly improved. The finite element method (FEM) is employed to analyze the magnetic performance and the force characterization of an optimized HMLA with varying t_{\rm sd} . The performances when the HMLA is excited by rectangular and sinusoidal waveform currents are investigated. The result presented in this paper has shown that the total average tangential force of this new HMLA could be improved by 51% in comparison to the existing HMLA.