Automated Design of AMB Rotor Systems with Standard Drive, Control Software and Hardware Technologies

Industrial applications of active magnetic bearings (AMBs) technology have been continuing to grow for over 4 decades. However, the volume and cost reduction for consumer products are still lower than industrial potential. Particularly, bearing design to match the application, control design, commissioning, control tuning, electronics design and scaling of VA rating to match the bearings make the significant contribution to overall cost of new AMBs. This paper describes how to design and implement an industrial 5 degrees of freedom AMB suspension and model-based control for rotating systems quickly and efficiently. The presented solution leverages the existing commercialized drives and automation components for making the AMB products. With the automated analytical design of AMB actuators and control in respect to design constrains the design & engineering of the product are completed. This leads to easier scalability, standardization, lead-time reduction, and broadening the application area.