The brushless electric motor gains ground. This is the technique behind it
Smart electric motors now do without carbon brushes. Washing, screwing, roasting and even vacuuming can already be brushless. And therefore more economical, cleaner and faster.
They are two parts that make noise, cause wear and spread a dirty black powder. They are in the engines of washing machines, vacuum cleaners, and drills. Carbon brushes. Everyone wants to get rid of them, and that also starts to work. The brushless electric motor gains ground thanks to smart electronics and new magnet materials such as neodymium. Electric bicycles, electric cars, and cordless tools are the main customers of this new electric motor.
Electric motors are available in many different versions, but the principle is always the same: you take two magnets and you let magnet 1 pull magnet 2 towards them. If that is successful, a stalemate threatens, because the two magnets remain stubbornly opposite each other, north pole opposite south pole.
To get out of this impasse, you can change one of the magnets polarity. Now there is the North Pole opposite the North Pole and further on there is the South Pole. The north pole of the second magnet moves lightning fast to that south pole. When it arrives there, you change the polarity again.
If you now mount magnet 2 on a rotating shaft (rotor or anchor), and magnet 1 around magnet 2 (stator), these small jerks on both sides of magnet 2 occur (a magnet has two poles). The jerks become a revolving movement and voilà, an electric motor.
At least one of the two magnets must be an electromagnet. Sometimes that is the stator, sometimes the rotor and sometimes both stator and rotor are an electromagnet. Motors, where the stator and the rotor are equipped with a permanent magnet, do not work, although the inventors of perpetual mobiles would like to see it differently.
But how do you change a magnet of polarity? To begin with, you take an electromagnet, a coil of copper wire. If you let an electric current flow through it, it exerts a magnetic force. And if you reverse the flow direction, that electromagnet changes polarity. But how do you turn the flow direction?
The easiest way to do this is by using alternating current because that is an electric current that does nothing but change direction, fifty times per second. Every socket delivers that and most motors and motors in fans, modern washing machines, central heating pumps, microwave ovens, and ovens work like this (the so-called single-phase induction motors). For this a few problems had to be overcome; For example, a few tricks are required for starting the engine.
But if no alternating current is available? That is increasingly the case. Think of cordless drills, sewing machines, sanders. Or the motors in cars for windshield wipers, window controls, fan, and air conditioning. And do not forget the motors of electric bikes and cars.
All those motors rely on power from batteries and batteries, and that is direct current, with a fixed polarity.
A century and a half ago something was found: the commutator.
The rotor then consists of a rotatable shaft with an electromagnet. The beginning and the end of the winding are connected to two copper plates on the side of the shaft. Against each plate, a conductive piece of carbon (graphite), the carbon brush, presses from the motor housing. If a direct voltage is now connected to both carbon brushes, the coil is energized and the rotor is magnetic.
The rotor is in the magnetic field of the stator. The rotor gets a move, turns half a turn, and now every carbon brush presses again against a copper plate, but this time the other. The beginning and end of the winding have been changed, the coil is energized again, but the current direction in the coil is turned. Again the rotor gets a move and a moment later the revolution is complete and starts from the beginning. For a smooth run, more copper plates are mounted on the shaft (collectively called the collector or commutator) and the rotor also has more windings.
The disadvantages of this construction are large and numerous. There are friction losses and the carbon brushes and the copper plates wear due to the constant twisting. All of this is at the expense of efficiency, produces unwanted heat, makes noise and sprays dust and grinding around. Furthermore, the contact between carbon brush and collector is never optimal and voltage loss occurs. You also often see considerable sparks between brush and collector, with extra wear and tear, ozone formation, radio interference and danger of explosion as consequences.
At a certain moment, the brushes are worn out and the engine stops. Replacement of the brushes is then the only thing that is on it. For long-term operation, carbon brush motors are therefore actually unsuitable.
You can still see those engines in vacuum cleaners, older and cheaper washing machines and drills with a cord. These are the so-called universal motors. And although they work on alternating current, they are still equipped with carbon brushes. They have two electromagnets, and the rotor is energized with carbon brushes. The advantage of this type of motor is that it is compact and light, even at low speeds, has a lot of pulling power and is easy to control (forward, backward, slow, fast). The disadvantage: those carbon brushes. That is why you will not find them in the new and better washing machines. With vacuum cleaners, this type of motor is still ubiquitous, although a manufacturer like Miele does not exclude a brushless cord vacuum cleaner for the future.
Powerful magnetic material
With cordless screwdrivers, the advantages are very clear, because they are easy to compare with their brushed counterparts. Most manufacturers sell both types.
Speed control is simple: the microprocessor controls the rate at which the coils of the stator are energized. And because each coil is fully supplied with power, full power remains available even at low speeds - unlike the brushed machine where power is 'pinched' at low speeds.
Electromagnets in tools can become quite warm, but in the brushless motor for drone. they do not rotate and can be mounted against the cool metal inside of the motor housing. Through the use of powerful magnetic material (neodymium), a brushless drill can be more compact than its brushed counterpart.
It costs a few more euros, but it has a longer lifespan, is more powerful, and you can screw and drill much longer on one battery charge. It is difficult to deny that progress is being made here. The future is definitely not wrinkled, but probably brushless.
Get more details here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/19605957-brushless-dc-motors