Festo_SupraMotor_en

SupraMotor Superconducting compact claw pole motor with electrical solid-state cooling In addition to the SupraMotion movement concepts, Festo is also investigating technologies for direct superconducting drives. The company will present the SupraMotor technology platform, a superconducting claw pole motor with solid-state cooling, for the first time at the Hannover Messe 2018. It is characterised by a compact design, a high holding torque and a coolant-free, long-life electrical direct cooling system. Loss-free electricity transmission The drive makes use of the effect that electricity within an appro- priately cooled superconductor is transmitted without loss. This allows a strong magnetic field to be generated using very high currents. The SupraMotor has a high overload capacity and is suit- able for applications in continuous operation. Overheating due to conduction losses is ruled out as far as possible thanks to the resistance-free superconducting coils. Low energy demand It works particularly efficiently at low speeds with very high torques: if a load has to be held, no energy is used in the drive even at maximum holding torque. The low energy demand is remarkable: whilst the motor’s output power is in the double-digit kilowatt range, the total energy used for cooling is in the low three-digit watt range and less than five watts in the coil. The motor is currently only operated with low phase currents, as the ferromagnetic materials available until now are unable to take larger magnetic flux densities. Through further research, however, new concepts and materials could be investigated, which could fully exploit the supercon- ductor’s current carrying capacity of well over 100 amperes. Project participants Project initiator: Dr Wilfried Stoll, managing partner, Festo Holding GmbH Project coordination: Georg Berner, Festo Holding GmbH Project team: Martin Fuss, Dr. Benjamin Reutzsch, Michael Schöttner, Festo AG & Co. KG Technology partners: evico GmbH, Dresden SmartDrives GmbH, Berne IFW Dresden, Leibniz Institute for Solid State and Materials Research, Dresden Festo AG & Co. KG Ruiter Strasse 82 73734 Esslingen Germany Phone +49 711 347-0 Fax +49 711 347-21 55 cc@festo.com www.festo.com/supra 50097 en 3/2018 The fascination of superconductors Superconductors are materials with very special properties: if they are cooled below a certain temperature, their electrical resistance suddenly drops to zero. Below this so-called transition tempera- ture, they can also freeze the field of a permanent magnet at a de- fined gap – meaning that either the magnet or they themselves start to hover. Superconductors in automation The use of superconductors in the industrial automation sector is still in the development stage. Yet even today, completely new and efficient processes are conceivable with the technology. This is why Festo has been looking intensively into superconductivity technology and its industrial use for years. A wide range of bearing and movement forms have already been specifically tested with the SupraMotion projects and turned into possible applications. Festo is now carrying out investigations with partners and custom- ers, whose application ideas can be turned into pilot projects. You can find out exactly how superconductors work and what industrial appli- cations are possible with the technology at www.festo.com/supra 5 Festo AG & Co. KG