Safety and Reliability Aspects for Active Magnetic Bearing Applications - A Survey

The application of magnetic bearings for rotating machinery has become state of the art and spans from research prototypes to industrial series. Users are aware that beyond functionality the aspects of safety and related areas become increasingly important. This survey addresses the issues of safety and reliability, being a part of dependability. It gives a review on existing approaches, and it shows numerous examples of problems and solutions. Review topics are safety-oriented design methods, software tools, redundancy, robust control, and retainer bearings. Finally, the concept of smart machines is introduced as a way for further improving safety and dependability of machinery with active magnetic bearings.