Linear pulsed d.c. motor and controls therefor

Claim 2

A linear D. C. electric motor comprising: an elongated stator including a linear array of equidistantly spaced magnets, adjacent magnets being of opposite polarity, a linear rotor guided to travel along the stator, said rotor bridging adjacent magnets and providing a flux path therebetween, a series of sets of independently excitable coil conductors across a face of the rotor confronting the magnets, said conductors reacting with the flux field between the magnets and the rotor to produce thrust, Hall effect detecting means for each set of coil conductors and being mounted on said rotor and moving in proximity to the magnets, said detecting means being position oriented with respect to the conductors and providing an output indicating the position of the conductors relative to the magnets and the polarity of the magnets. a power supply, a coil conductor set sequencer actuated in response to the output of the detecting means and connecting the power supply to each set of coil conductors upon entry thereof into the flux field said sequencer further controlling the direction of current flow in each set of conductors in accordance with the polarity of the adjacent magnet, a current control means in circuit with the power supply, a fixed frequency pulse generator and, means controlling the current control means in accordance with a comparison of pulses from the pulse generator and the output of at least one of the detecting means.

Claim 3

A motor as defined in claim 1 wherein: the current control means includes a current pulse width modulator.

Claim 4

A linear electric motor comprising: an elongated stator including a linear array of equidistantly spaced magnets, adjacent magnets being of opposite polarity, a linear rotor guided to travel along the stator, said rotor bridging adjacent magnets and providing a flux path therebetween, a series of sets of independently excitable coil conductors across a face of the rotor confronting the magnets, said conductors reacting with the flux field between the magnets and the rotor to produce thrust, detecting means for each set of coil conductors and moving with said rotor, said detecting means being position oriented with respect to the conductors to provide an output indicating the position of the conductors relative to the magnets, a power supply, a coil conductor set sequencer actuated in response to the output of the detecting means and connecting the power supply to each set of coil conductors upon entry thereof into the flux field, a current control means in circuit with the power supply, a time referenced pulse generator, a counter summing the number of outputs of the detecting means, a comparison register differencing the number of pulses generated by the time referenced pulse generator froM the outputs summed in the counter, and further providing a command signal as a function of the difference, said current control means being responsive to the command signal to control thrust produced by the coil sets, and, computer means selectively operable to input modifying signals to the comparison register to vary the difference between the pulses and summed outputs whereby to incrementally advance or retard the linear rotor.

Claim 5

A linear electric motor comprising: an elongated stator including a linear array of equidistantly spaced magnets, adjacent magnets being of opposite polarity, a linear rotor guided to travel along the stator, said rotor bridging adjacent magnets and providing a flux path therebetween, a series of sets of independently excitable coil conductors across a face of the rotor confronting the magnets, said conductors reacting with the flux field between the magnets and the rotor to produce thrust, detecting means for each set of coil conductors and moving with said rotor, said detecting means being position oriented with respect to the conductors to provide an output indicating the position of the conductors relative to the magnets, a power supply, a coil conductor set sequencer actuated in response to the output of the detecting means and connecting the power supply to each set of coil conductors upon entry thereof into the flux field, a current control means in circuit with the power supply, a time referenced pulse generator, a counter summing the number of outputs of the detecting means, a comparison register differencing the number of pulses generated by the time referenced pulse generator froM the outputs summed in the counter, and further providing a command signal as a function of the difference, said current control means being responsive to the command signal to control thrust produced by the coil sets, and, computer means selectively operable to input modifying signals to the comparison register to vary the difference between the pulses and summed outputs whereby to incrementally advance or retard the linear rotor.

Claim 6

A linear electric motor comprising: an elongated stator including first and second parallel linear arrays of equidistantly spaced magnets, adjacent magnets in each array being of opposite polarity, a linear rotor guided to travel between the parallel arrays, said rotor having faces confronting and bridging adjacent magnets in each array and providing a flux path therebetween, a series of sets of independently excitable coil conductors across the faces of the rotor confronting the arrays of magnets, said conductors reacting with the flux field between the magnets and the rotor to produce thrust, detecting means for each set of coil conductors and moving with said rotor, said detecting means being position oriented with respect to the conductors to provide an output indicating the position of the conductors relative to the magnets, a power supply, a coil conductor set sequencer actuated in response to the output of the detecting means and connecting the power supply to each set of coil conductors upon entry thereof into the flux field.

Claim 7

A linear electric motor comprising: an elongated stator including first and second parallel linear arrays of equidistantly spaced magnets, adjacent magnets in each array being of opposite polarity, a linear rotor guided to travel between the parallel arrays, said rotor having faces confronting and bridging adjacent magnets in each array and providing a flux path therebetween, a series of sets of independently excitable coil conductors across the faces of the rotor confronting the arrays of magnets, said conductors reacting with the flux field between the magnets and the rotor to produce thrust, detecting means for each set of coil conductors and moving with said rotor, said detecting means being position oriented with respect to the conductors to provide an output indicating the position of the conductors relative to the magnets, a power supply, a coil conductor set sequencer actuated in response to the output of the detecting means and connecting the power supply to each set of coil conductors upon entry thereof into the flux field.

Claim 8

A linear electric motor as defined in claim 4 wherein: the rotor is split into two halves, one of said halves and conductors thereon reacting with one of the parallel arrays and the other of said halves and conductors thereon reacting with the other of the parallel arrays of magnets, said halves of the rotor being independently moveable relative to the arrays to maintain constant spacing therebetween.

Claim 9

A motor as defined in claim 4 and further including: control means for varying power to the motor from the power supply; and motor velocity detecting means providing a command to the control means in accordance with a preselected motor velocity profile.

Claim 10

A motor as defined in claim 4 and further including: a current control means in circuit with the power supply a fixed frequency pulse generator, and, a comparison register receiving pulses from the pulse generator and receiving the output from at least one of the detecting means, said comparison register providing a command output to control the current control means as a function of the ratio of the pulses received to the detecting means output.

Claim 11

A motor as defined in claim 4 and further including: a current control means in circuit with the power supply, a fixed frequency pulse generator, and, means controlling the current control means in accordance with a comparison of pulses from the pulse generator and the output of at least one of the detecting means.