An Eddy Current Damper for Reaction Force Compensation for a Linear Motor Motion Stage

This paper presents an eddy current damper (ECD) for reaction force compensation for a linear motor motion stage. A reaction force compensation mechanism with a movable magnet track and an ECD (or conductor plate) is developed. Lumped model of the ECD is derived considering sinusoidal magnetic flux density distribution and effective width of the ECD. In addition, effects of both the location and width of the conductor plate are discussed. Multi-physical transient analysis of ECD is analyzed using commercial finite element software, which is compared with the lumped parameter analysis. Finally, the derived lumped model is validated with experiments.