FEM Design and Implementation of a Novel Linear Motor for Fluid-Power Proportional Valves

FEM Design and Implementation of a Novel Linear Motor for Fluid-Power Proportional Valves

In this paper, a novel short-stroke linear motor for fluid power proportional valve technology is proposed and realized. One most innovative design of the proposed linear motor is the movable pair of permanent magnets that are directly embedded into the output plunger of armature. Compared to the commonly used linear motor, in which the pair of permanent magnets are generally integrated into the stator and hence are not movable, this novel design realizes the linear output force/stroke characteristic. During the design process, the electro-magnetic software FLUX 2D is utilized as a tool to develop the novel linear motor. In addition, a prototype is also successfully manufactured. Finally, experimental results show that the effective linear working stroke of the novel linear motor is around ± 1.0 mm and the maximal output force reaches ± 16 N for the rated excitation current of ± 1.0A. Such a novel linear motor has the potential to replace the traditional proportional solenoid and is expected to find some real applications in future fluid power proportional valve technology.