Linear Induction Motor Transportation System.
AGW have developed an innovative coil winding technique in order to manufacture coils for a Linear Induction Motor Transportation System.
Linear Induction is a potential major contributor to the future of transportation. It is a green system, using electricity as it power source. It uses an electro-magnetic system to create the force to move a vehicle along a track.
ELECTRO MAGNETIC COILS
The propulsion is created by a row of electro-magnetic coils mounted in the track. Each coil has its current flowing through it in the opposite direction to its neighbouring coils. This creates a push pull effect on the magnets mounted in the vehicle, propelling it along the track.
The most famous Maglev example is the high speed passenger trains in Japan, but the first examples were European. These included a track and transport system at Birmingham airport, linking it to the railway station and the exhibition centre.
SAVINGS IN CONSTRUCTION AND SPACE REQUIRED
The benefits of this type of transportation system is that it may be frictionless, there are no moving motor parts, high acceleration and speed are possible and the ride of the vehicle is very stable. The applications have expanded giving further benefits.
The system is now used to accelerate the carriages at the start of a theme park ride. This means that the carriages no longer have to be dragged up to a very high level and allowed to fall down a steep slope to gain the momentum to complete the ride. This is a big saving in construction costs and space requirement.
WAREHOUSE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
A second, and more practical use, is in warehouse transportation systems. The systems can replace conveyor belts and roller path systems. They are quiet and smooth, which improves the working environment and protects the goods being transported from possible vibration and collision damage.
The required coils, that AGW helped develop, needed to meet size restrictions and required a reversal in the winding direction part way through the winding process without a break in the winding wire. AGW have been able to develop winding equipment and a manufacturing method that creates this, difficult to achieve, reversal without any wire break. This removes the need for an expensive and difficult reconnection of wires method to give the reversed part of the coil.
The achievement has substantially aided the assembly of the track system for the linear induction motor system. Again, AGW’s skilled engineering and development resources found a solution.