BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the preferred embodiment of the present invention when the track section has one sensor;
FIG. 1A is a principal scheme describing the preferred embodiment of the present invention according to FIG. 1;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a variant of the preferred embodiment of the present invention when the track section has two sensors;
FIG. 2A is a principal scheme describing a variant of the preferred embodiment of the present invention according to FIG. 1 when the moving body travels in one direction;
FIG. 2B is a principal scheme describing a variant of the preferred embodiment of the present invention according to FIG. 1 when the moving body travels in the opposite direction in respect to FIG. 2A;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the embodiment of the present invention when the switching electromagnetic moving system is configured as a race track;
FIG. 4 is a principal scheme describing a variant of the preferred embodiment of the present invention according to FIG. 2 when the moving body travels in one direction;
FIG. 4A is a principal scheme describing FIG. 4 when the moving body approaches the next sensor;
FIG. 5 is a principal scheme describing a variant of the preferred embodiment of the present invention according to FIG. 2 when the moving body travels in the opposite direction;
FIG. 5A is a principal scheme describing FIG. 5 when the moving body approaches the next sensor;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a part of the multi-phase linear stator when the coil windings are made as a printed circuit board;
FIG. 6A is a perspective view showing a part of the multi-phase linear stator when the coil windings are made as surface mounted coils spaced on a printed circuit board.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
FIGS. 1-6A show embodiments of the present invention.
The switching electromagnetic moving system 1 according to the preferred embodiment (FIGS. 1, 1A, 2A and 2B), is comprised of one track 2 and one moving body 3 located on the track 2. The track 2 is comprised of a power buss 4, three track sections 5 and a controller 6. Each of the track sections 5 has a contact surface 7 and is comprised of electrically connected coil windings 8 spaced apart in a series way along the track section 5 and forms a multi-phase linear stator 9. The stator 9 is executed as 3 phase linear stator 9. The track sections 5 are electrically connected in parallel with the power buss 4. Each coil winding 8 is located at a plane substantially coincides with the contact surface 7 and has a magnetic axis substantially perpendicular to the contact surface 7. Each track section 5 has a switch 10 and a sensor 11 that is a Hall effect sensor to detect the moving body position on the track 2.
The sensor 11 of the track section 5 controls the switch 10 of the subsequent track 5A section relative to the direction of the moving body displacement to apply power to the linear stator 9 of the subsequent track 5A section. And, the sensor 11 of the track section 5 controls the switch 10 of the preceding track section 5B relative to the direction of the moving body displacement to remove power from the linear stator 9 of the preceding track section 5B.
The moving body 3 is placed upon the insulated contact surface 7 and is comprised of two magnetized objects 12 and 12A with magnetic axis substantially perpendicular to the contact surface 7 such as to cause interaction with the linear stator 9 when it is powered, thus creating a force tending to propel the moving body 3 along the track 2. The track 2 may be executed as a closed loop 21 (FIG. 2). The track sections 5 are executed as straight 5a and 5B and curvilinear 5 track sections (FIG. 1). The length of the curvilinear track section 5 not more than the length of the linear track sections 5a and 5B.
The controller 6 is comprised of a voltage regulator 13 and/or a frequency regulator 14 to change the attraction of the moving body 3 to the track section 5 and/or speed of the moving body 3 correspondingly. The frequency regulator 14 may be connected with the voltage regulator 13 to change the voltage depending on the changed frequency. Such connection may be executed mechanically by the regulator connector 30 (FIGS. 4-5A).
The controller 6 is comprised of a phase sequence commutator 15 (FIGS. 2-2B, 4-5A) thus propelling the moving body 3 in either of two opposite directions along the track 2. Said moving directions are shown by the corresponding arrows on said Figs.
The switch 10 of each track section 5 is made as a logic switch 10 further electrically connected with the phase sequence commutator 15, the logic switch 10 powers the linear stator 9 of the same track section 5 on or off depending on the direction of travel of the moving body 5.
The system 1 may be comprised of two identical tracks 2 and 2A, two moving bodies 3 and 3A, and two controllers 6 and 6A correspondingly (FIG. 3), the tracks 2 and 2A are spaced apart thus the system 1 is configured as a race track 29 with independent control of the moving bodies 3 and 3A, therefore permitting competition.
According to the preferred embodiment the coil windings 8 of the linear stator 9 are made as a printed circuit board 19 (FIG. 6) or are made as surface mounted coils 20 spaced on a printed circuit board 19 (FIG. 6A).
According to the second embodiment of the present invention (FIGS. 2, 4-5A) for more power economy each track section 5 has two sensors 11 and 11A that are Hall effect sensors placed at each end parts 25 of the track section 5, and the switch 10 of each track section 5 is controlled in such a way thus the nearest sensor 26 of the preceding track section 5B relative to the direction of travel of the moving body 3 controls the switch 10 to apply power, while the nearest sensor 27 of the subsequent track section 5A controls the switch 10 to disconnect power.
The switching electromagnetic moving system 1 operates as follows. When electrical power is supplied from the power source (not shown) to the coils windings 8 of the track 2 that operate together as the stator 9, alternating electromagnetic fields are created. First, the electrical power is supplied to two adjacent coils windings 8 of the linear stator 9 located on a part of the track 2 where the moving body 3 is located at the commencement of the process. The electromagnetic field created by two adjacent coils windings 8 interacts with a magnetic field created by the permanent magnets 28 of the magnetized object 12, which serve as the moving body 3. As a result, the moving body 3 is propelled along the track 2 to the next segment of coils 8 of the track 2 with two adjacent coils windings 8, where the polarity of electrical power is switched by the controller 6, further propelling the moving body 3, and the moving body 3 continues to move to subsequent coils windings 8, and so on.
While the moving body 3 is traveled along the track 2 in one preliminary defined direction, the permanent magnet 28 is passed through the action zone of the Hall effect sensor 24 of each track section 5 (FIGS. 1 and 1A). FIG. 1A shows the moment when the moving body 3 is approached to the Hall effect sensor 24 of the track section 5. The North Pole of the permanent magnet 28 will activate Hall effect sensor 24 which will create a fixed pulse duration signal. This signal will travel to the switch 10 of the preceding track section 5B and to the switch 10 of the subsequent track section 5A. According to that signals the switch 10 of the preceding track section 5B will remove 3-phase drive power from track section 5B and the switch 10 of the subsequent track section 5A will apply 3-phase power to track section 5A. As the moving body 3 travels forward to the next sensor 24 this process will repeat and will continue in this fashion with only two track sections 5 powered at a time.
FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate how the system 1 operates when the moving body 3 will travel in either direction along the track 2. The direction of the moving body 3 is defined by the position of the phase sequence commutator 15. In this case the switch 10 of each track section 5 is made as a logic switch 16 electrically connected with the phase sequence commutator 15. When the moving body 3 is traveled in one direction shown by the arrow on FIG. 2A and the moving body 3 is approached to the Hall effect sensor 24 of the track section 5, the North Pole of the permanent magnet 28 will activate Hall effect sensor 24 which will create a fixed pulse duration signal. This signal will travel to the logic switch 16 of the preceding track section 5B and to the logic switch 16 of the subsequent track section 5A. Said logic switches 16 according to both signals from the phase sequence commutator 15 and from the Hall effect sensor 24 of the track section 5 will operate as follows. The switch 16 of the preceding track section 5B will remove 3-phase drive power from track section 5B and the switch 16 of the subsequent track section 5A will apply 3-phase power to track section 5A. As the moving body 3 travels forward to the next sensor 24 this process will repeat and will continue in this fashion with only two track sections 5 powered at a time. When the moving body 3 is traveled along the track 2 in opposite direction illustrated by the arrow on FIG. 2B the system 1 will operate in a similar way.
FIGS. 4-5A illustrate how the system 1 will operate in accordance with the second embodiment of the present invention. Each track section 5 has two sensors 11 and 11A that are the Hall effect sensors and the logic switch 16 electrically connected with the phase sequence commutator 15. When the moving body 3 is traveled in one direction shown by the arrow on FIG. 4 and the moving body 3 is approached to the Hall effect sensor 11A of the track section 5, the North Pole of the permanent magnet 28 will activate said Hall effect sensor 11A which will create a fixed pulse duration signal. This signal will travel to the logic switch 16 of the subsequent track section 5A. Said logic switches 16 according to both signals from the phase sequence commutator 15 and from said Hall effect sensor 11A of the track section 5 will apply 3-phase power to track section 5A. As the moving body 3 travels forward to the next sensor 11 of the subsequent track section 5A (FIG. 4A), the North Pole of the permanent magnet 28 will activate said Hall effect sensor 11 which will create a fixed pulse duration signal. This signal will travel to the logic switch 16 of the track section 5. Said logic switches 16 according to both signals from the phase sequence commutator 15 and from said Hall effect sensor 11 of the track section 5A will remove 3-phase drive power from the track section 5. When the moving body 3 travels forward to the next sensor 11A of the subsequent track section 5A this process will repeat and will continue in this fashion.
If the moving body 3 is traveled along the track 2 in opposite direction illustrated by the arrow on FIGS. 5 and 5A the system 1 will operate in a similar way.
The main effect of the present invention that makes it superior to all known technical solutions in this field is as follows: the system 1 may employ a method of selectively switching drive current to track sections 5 allowing the controller 6 to operate longer lengths of track without a significant increase in power. It also allows the track 2 to operate cooler by allowing a duty cycle for each track section 5 (The more track sections 5 used, the shorter the duty cycle for each track section 5). As an example, using this method of track section switching would allow 30 feet or 300 feet of track 2 to use roughly the same power as three feet of the same track. Two sensors 11 are used on each track section 5 allowing the preceding track section 5B to be turned off earlier than the subsequent track section 5A will be turn on.
The controllers 6 output uses frequency to control the speed the moving body 3 is propelled on the track 2. The higher the frequency the faster the moving body 3 travels. This may be augmented by adjusting the output voltage of the frequency wave. A lower voltage allows for a smoother more efficient slow speed operation. At higher frequencies the voltage is increased to help maintain the moving body 3 lock with the track 2 drive. This allows the moving body 3 to travel faster and handle curves better.
Patent Application
20080011184
