Design and Optimization of a Tubular Permanent Magnet Linear Motor Using Finite Element Method and Permeance Analysis Method for Spray Application

In order to overcome difficulties of using pneumatic system operated automatic spray gun, a tubular permanent magnet linear motor has been designed and developed to trigger the spray gun. Finite Element Method (FEM) is implemented in motor designing process to obtain the proper size of back yoke, coil and permanent magnet, type of materials of back yoke and PM, pitch length and the required thrust of the linear motor. Magnetic flux distribution can also be predicted from FEM analysis. Then several permeance thrust models are developed to optimize the size of the motor by analyzing the effect of thrust constant, electrical and mechanical time constant. Finally, based on the optimized data the linear motor has been fabricated and tested with newly developed spray gun. During the performance test it is seen that the developed linear motor can be successfully implemented to trigger the spray gun.