Electric Motors and Motor Control Lesson 3

Objectives: Explain what the speed regulation of a motor is. Describe Starting Current and Torque. Explain the difference between Shaded Pole Motors and Universal Motors.

Squirrel Cage Rotor Principles The squirrel cage rotor is made up of bars of conductors that are short circuited at each end.

Diagrammatic drawing of the squirrel-cage

Squirrel cage rotor

Split-Phase Motors and Slip

The speed of the rotating field of the rotor is 3600 RPM in this twopole (main poles) motor.

The rotor does not travel as fast. The rotor must slip behind the synchronous speed in order to have voltage induced into it.

The rotor bars must be cut by the magnetic field of the stator to induce voltage.

The amount of slip depends on many factors: the design of the rotor, and type of rotor conductors.

There is also air gap between the rotor and the stator iron, and mechanical load on the shaft.

Speed Regulation
As the mechanical load on the motor shaft increases, the rotor slows down.

A perfect motor would have 0 percent speed regulation. This means there would be no speed variation between no load and full-load speed.

Connections

Split-phase motors also come in dual voltage ratings. The motor connections are simple and are interchangeable from one voltage to another.

Most dual-voltage motors only use one starting winding.

By placing the running windings in series with each other and applying 230 volts, 115 volts will be present across each half of the winding.

Reversing To reverse the direction of rotation of the rotor, the direction of the rotating magnetic field at time of starting must be reversed.

Starting Winding Switches

Starting switches and relays for singlephase motors are used to disconnect the starting windings of a motor as the motor approaches running speed.

Starting Current and Torque

When a motor is first connected to the power source, there is a large inrush of current.

This large rotor current and stator current produce strong magnetic poles that produce the torque necessary to start the rotor spinning.

As the rotor comes up to speed, the rotor current decreases because of less induced voltage (less slip) and the decrease in stator current and line current.

Capacitor Start, Induction Run Motors Capacitor start motors are used when single-phase power is available, but there is a need for more starting torque.

Shaded Pole Motors Shaded pole motors are one of the simplest and cheapest motors to construct.

Shading coils Small shaded-pole motor

These motors are typically fractional HP ratings and are used in applications that do not require a great deal of starting torque.

Shaded pole motors are typically used for fans where the blades are directly mounted to the rotor shaft and air passes over the motor.

3.3-Inch Shaded Pole Motor for

Fan, Pump and

Other General Purposes

Universal Motors Universal motors are conduction motors. The name universal indicates that the motor will operate on AC or DC or many frequencies of AC.

Speed control is common in universal motors. The load may consist of gear boxes.

There also can be other devices permanently connected so there is a load at all times (for example, drills, saws, vacuum cleaners, and mixers.