Electric Motor: AC Motors

An electric motor uses electrical energy to produce mechanical energy. Electric motors are found in household appliances such as fans, refrigerators, washing machines, pool pumps, floor vacuums, and industrial machines such as lathes and grinders. According to the kind of electrical current a motor works on, there are two types of motors; DC motors, and AC motors.

A DC motor is designed to run on DC electric power. Two examples of pure DC designs are Michael Faraday's homopolar motor, and the ball bearing motor, which is a novelty. By far the most common DC motor types are the brushed and brushless types, which use internal and external commutation respectively to create an oscillating AC current from the DC source -- so they are not purely DC machines in a strict sense.

An AC motor is an electric motor that is driven by an alternating current. There are two types of ac motors; asynchronous and synchronous electric motors. The induction ac motor is a common form of asynchronous motor and is basically an ac transformer with a rotating secondary. The primary winding is in the stator and is connected to the power source and the shorted secondary (rotor) carries the induced secondary current. Torque is produced by the action of the rotor (secondary) currents on the air-gap flux. The synchronous motor differs greatly in design and operational characteristics, and is considered a separate class of ac motor.

Induction ac motors (asynchronous) are the simplest and most rugged electric motor and consists of two basic electrical assemblies: the wound stator and the rotor assembly. The induction ac motor derives its name from currents flowing in the secondary member (rotor) that are induced by alternating currents flowing in the primary member (stator). The combined electromagnetic effects of the stator and rotor currents produce the force to create rotation.

A synchronous electric motor is an AC motor distinguished by a rotor spinning with coils passing magnets at the same rate as the alternating current and resulting magnetic field which drives it. Another way of saying this is that it has zero slip under usual operating conditions. Contrast this with an induction motor, which must slip in order to produce torque.

In 1882, Nikola Tesla invented the rotating magnetic field, and pioneered the use of a rotary field of force to operate machines. He exploited the principle to design a unique two-phase induction motor in 1883. In 1885, Galileo Ferraris independently researched the concept. In 1888, Ferraris published his research in a paper to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Turin.

Introduction of Tesla's motor from 1888 onwards made possible the efficient generation and long distance distribution of electrical energy using the alternating current transmission system, also of Tesla's invention (1888). Before the invention of the rotating magnetic field, motors operated by continually passing a conductor through a stationary magnetic field (as in homopolar motors).Tesla had suggested that the commutators from a machine could be removed and the device could operate on a rotary field of force.