Improving the Hybrid Electromagnetic Clamping System by Reducing the Leakage Flux and Enhancing the Effective Flux

• Main Authors: Soo-Whang Baek, Keun-Young Yoon
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2019-10-01
• Series: Energies
• Subjects: clamping system; permanent magnet; electromagnet; electromagnetic force; leakage flux
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/12/19/3762

In most industrial fields, mechanical clamping methods are traditionally used to transport heavy loads such as steel structures by fastening the load using bolts and nuts. However, this method can lead to industrial accidents during load transfer and does not consider the weight of the load. Recently, permanent magnet clamping methods have been proposed to prevent such accidents; for example, hybrid electromagnetic clamping systems (H-EMCSs), which combine permanent magnets and electromagnets and can adjust the clamping force according to the load weight. However, few studies have attempted to improve the electromagnetic structure and effective magnetic flux of H-EMCS. Specifically, H-EMCSs control the clamping force using several hybrid electromagnetic modules (H-EMMs); however, the leakage magnetic flux increases with an increasing number of H-EMMs. Therefore, the clamping force should be improved to avoid increasing the leakage magnetic flux. In this study, we propose a novel H-EMM structure and improve its electromagnetic force characteristics by changing the core shape and dimension effect in order to reduce the leakage flux and maximize the effective magnetic flux. Furthermore, we verify the improved electromagnetic force properties by experimentally validating the proposed model. This research can improve the safe and effective transfer of industrial loads.