Test Procedure for Very High Speed Spindle Motors

In the last ten years, the new power electronic devices and the new control techniques have allowed to open new application fields for adjustable speed/torque electrical drives. Although the traditional dc drives keep still the market supremacy, the new ac drives have performance really attractive and some additional benefits due to the machine structure and to the maintenance costs. Usually, ac drives use induction or brushless motors and the power amplifiers are driven by variable voltage/frequency in order to obtain variable speed. The authors deal with induction motors fed by non conventional supplies at very high frequency. In order to evaluate the total motor losses and the single items, a test bench with a synchronous machine capable to work up to 2 kHz with sinusoidal output voltage has been set up. As a consequence, an induction motor equivalent circuit with parameters depending on the frequency has been proposed. Today, the empirical procedure is that to use for high frequency applications shelf motors derated of a factor 10 to 20 % in order to keep into account the extra harmonic losses. On the other hand, the authors propose to design ‘ad hoc’ the motors for six-steps continuous operation in order to get about the same efficiency of standard motors. The new proposed motor equivalent circuit together with the test procedure seem to be a practical tool in order to aid the new motor design.