Conventional motors use hand-wound copper wire coils to encircle ferrous stator teeth. Typically, these complex spools fit into limited space and contain a great number of turns. This creates a design tension between the number of poles and amount of copper. ME devices use simple toroidal coils with the stator teeth ‘wrapped’ around the coil. This configuration enables high pole counts without affecting the coil or decreasing its size. This results in machines that can produce more torque per electrical current or higher torque constant per coil resistance.
For a given continuous torque, an ME motor can be much smaller, use far less copper, and weigh much less than conventional motors. It is important to note that this architecture uses conventional materials, and can be scaled from very small to very large machines while retaining its compelling advantage.
For a given weight and size, an ME motor produces much more torque per electrical charge resulting in higher efficiency compared to conventional motors. This creates the ability to remove the burden of actively cooling the motor. Cooling systems can be large and complex, and consume power that could otherwise be utilized by the motor. This also enables the motor to operate in conditions where other motors cannot (many applications require the motor to be sealed which can necessitate active cooling).
In many applications, conventional electric machines operate at high speed (1,000 to 15,000 RPMs) to produce the power required for that application. These non-ideal speeds require the use of heavy, energy-consuming transmissions to gear down to lower speed and higher torque to match the application’s need. ME motors can deliver high enough torque to eliminate the gear reduction and enable more efficient, lighter weight, direct drive systems.
The ME device is categorized as transverse flux, of which very few are presently manufactured. ME successfully secured intellectual property (IP) in the area of transverse flux motors and generators. While other patents and publications on transverse flux exist, ME believes its existing and additional patent applications support and defend its unique geometry.
