A Novel PM Bearing and Its Application in Permanent Maglev Turbine Machine

A prototype of permanent maglev turbine machine was developed. The device has a rotor and a stator, both have two PM rings with a diagonal surface (bevel plane). All rings were magnetized axially and the rotor rings have opposite magnetized direction compared with the stator rings. Their diagonal surfaces are face to face and reject each other, producing a rejection force perpendicular to the diagonal surfaces. The rotor is suspended in such way radially and axially by these two PM bearings. First experiment demonstrated that the rotor maximal eccentric distance, measured by 4 Hall sensors, would be smaller than the gap between the rotor and the stator, if the rotating speed was higher than 1800rpm, indicating that the rotor had no contact with the stator and thus was levitated stably.