Festo builds a superconductive motor for the first time
At the Hanover Messe 2018 trade fair, Festo is for the first time presenting the technology platform SupraMotor, a superconductive claw pole motor with solid-body cooling. It is characterised by a highly compact design, a high holding torque and a durable electrical direct cooling system. For a number of years, the company has also been investigating superconductive drive units in addition to automation concepts with superconductor technology.
Along with the movement concepts with SupraMotion that are being developed for industrial application, Festo is also investigating technologies for superconductive direct drive units. With SupraMotor, the automation specialist has succeeded in constructing a superconductive drive with electrical direct cooling. Measuring only about a metre in length and up to 23 centimetres in diameter, this unit is highly compact. The drive makes use of the effect that electricity within an appropriately cooled superconductor is transmitted without loss. This allows a strong magnetic field to be generated with very high currents which can be used for the motor.
High overload capacity
The SupraMotor has a high overload capacity and is suitable for applications in continuous operation. The risk of overheating is effectively zero as the superconducting coils carry the electrical current without resistance. The motor works particularly efficiently at low speeds with very high torques. If a load must be held, the drive uses no energy even at maximum holding torque.
Low energy demand
In general, too, the energy demand is low: whilst the motor’s output power is in the double-digit kilowatt range, it only needs energy for cooling in the low three-digit watt range.
The motor can at present only be operated with low phase currents, as the ferromagnetic materials available until now are unable to take larger magnetic flux densities. Through further research, however, new concepts and materials could be investigated, which could fully exploit the superconductor’s current carrying capacity of well over 100 amperes.
Further new concepts for superconductivity
Festo has now been developing superconductor technology for application in automation technology for ten years. The innovations on display at the Hanover Messe 2018 will once again include various SupraMotion exhibits which further extend the diverse range of applications for this technology.
Superconductors: materials with special characteristics
Superconductors are materials which below a certain temperature lose their electrical resistance and can store the field of a permanent magnet at a predefined distance. Festo is using the first of these effects for SupraMotor, and the second enables objects to be held in position and manoeuvred without contact, as is being demonstrated with the SupraMotion projects. The levitation gap remains stable even beyond walls.
Festo is a global player and an independent family-owned company with headquarters in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany. Festo has set standards in industrial automation technology and technical education ever since its establishment, thereby making a contribution to sustainable development of the environment, the economy and society. The company supplies pneumatic and electrical automation technology to 300,000 customers of factory and process automation in over 35 industries. Digitalization, AI and the LifeTech sector with medical technology and laboratory automation are becoming increasingly important. The products and services are available in 176 countries. With about 20,600 employees in over 250 branch offices in around 60 countries worldwide, Festo achieved a turnover of around €3.65 billion in 2023. Each year around 7% of this turnover is invested in research and development. In this learning company, 1.5 % of turnover is invested in basic and further training. Festo Didactic SE is a leading provider of technical education and training and offers its customers worldwide comprehensive digital and physical learning solutions in the industrial environment.
