Fault tolerant active magnetic bearing electric system

Claim 1

A fault tolerant active magnetic bearing system comprising: a magnetic bearing having a rotor mounted for rotation within a stator and for coupling to a shaft, said stator having at least six adjacent electromagnets configured such that each electromagnet is situated opposite from a corresponding electromagnet, adjacent electromagnets being separated by nonmagnetic flux barriers, each pair of diametrically opposite electromagnets being adapted to jointly generate a magnetically isolated control axis such that there are at least three control axes, only two of said control axes being required to maintain operation of said magnetic bearing; an electric power distribution system having at least three independent power buses, each of said power buses being coupled to a respective pair of said diametrically opposite electromagnets for supplying power thereto; power control means operatively coupled in circuit with said power buses and said bearing for controlling power to each said respective pair of said diametrically opposite electromagnets; and a plurality of bearing system controllers each coupled to a separate respective one of said power control means, each of said bearing system controllers being communication linked with each other for coordinating operation of the separate respective ones of said axis control means.