Topic 6

Electrical Actuators

Dr. Mahesh S. Narkhede

Electrical Engineering Department
Government Polytechnic, Mumbai
msnarkhede@ymail.com
https://drmaheshsnarkhede.wordpress.com/
 Course Outcome
After studying this topic you will be able to
• Explain working of Potentiometers
• Explain use of Potentiometer as an error detector
• State the working principle of ac /dc Servomotor
• State the working principle of Synchros, Synchro
transmitter and control transformer
• State the use of Synchros as error detector.
• State the working principle of Stepper motor
( PM & variable reluctance type)
• State the working principle of Tacho – generator
• State the applications of above components.

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 Potentiometer
Construction and Working Principle
• The potentiometer consists of a long resistive
wire L made up of magnum or with constantan
and a battery of known EMF V. This voltage is
called as driver cell voltage. Connect the two
ends of the resistive wire L to the battery
terminals as shown below.

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 Potentiometer
• The basic working principle of this is based on
the fact that the fall of the potential across any
portion of the wire is directly proportional to the
length of the wire, provided wire has uniform
cross-sectional area and the constant current
flowing through it. “When there is no potential
difference between any two nodes there is
electric current will flow”.
• Here following equation is valid

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 Potentiometer as an Error Detector
Potentiometer as an Error Detector
• Potentiometer also can be used as error detector.
When potentiometer is used as error detector, two
identical potentiometers are used and a constant
DC Supply is connected to fixed ends of pots.
• The variable points are taken as output. The error
voltage is directly proportional to difference
angular displacement / linear displacement of two
potentiometers. The DVM is provided to read the
error voltage between two pots.

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 Potentiometer

Here the difference of voltage between two

potentiometers is amplified and is given to motor
which is rotated by particular angle.
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 Servomotor
• Working principle of Servo Motors
• Servo motor works on the PWM ( Pulse Width
Modulation ) principle, which means its angle of
rotation is controlled by the duration of pulse
applied to it.

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 Servomotor
• Servo Motor (Servo) is an electromagnetic
device which uses a negative feedback
mechanism to converts an electric signal into
controlled motion.
• It can push or rotate an object with great
precision
• Basically, servos behave like as actuators which
provide precise control over velocity,
acceleration, and linear or angular position.

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 Servomotor
• A reference input (typically called a velocity input)
is sent to the servo amplifier, which controls the
speed of the servomotor.
• Directly mounted to the machine (or to the
servomotor) is a feedback device .
• This device changes mechanical motion into
electrical signals and is used as a feedback loop.
• This feedback loop is then sent to the error
detector, which compares the actual operation with
that of the reference input.
• If there is an error, that error is fed directly to the
amplifier, which makes the necessary corrections.

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 Servomotor
• Servo motors are rated in kg/cm (kilogram per
centimeter).
• Most of the servo motors are rated at 3kg/cm or
6kg/cm or 12kg/cm.
• This kg/cm tells you how much weight your
servo motor can lift at a particular distance.
• For example: A 6kg/cm Servo motor should be
able to lift 6kg if the load is suspended 1cm
away from the motors shaft, the greater the
distance the lesser the weight carrying capacity.

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Servomotor
Three basic types of
servo motors are used in
modern servo systems:
• ac servo motors, based
on induction motor
designs;
• dc servo motors, based
on dc motor designs;
• ac brushless servo
motors, based on
synchronous motor
designs.
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 DC Servomotor
• DC Motors have almost
linear Torque speed
characteristics.
• They are easier to control.

• The advancements made in power electronics,

brush commutator technology have made DC
servo motors popular. Advanced manufacturing
techniques have made dc motors with rotors of
very low inertia, thus achieving high torque to
inertia ratio
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AC servo Motor
• It is a two phase
induction motor. It
consists of two identical
pole pairs A-B and C-D
oriented 900 away from
each other in space. The
two currents used to
excite the two pole pairs
are 900 out of phase
(time quadrature).
• The rotor is squirrel cage
rotor
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 Characteristics of AC Servo Motor
• In normal induction
Motor rotor resistance
is kept low to obtain
high maximum torque
(A)
• In servo motor rotor
resistance is kept high
to obtain linear
characteristics (B)
• Since motor is required to make rapid
accelerations from standstill its rotor inertia is
kept very low which is obtained by reduced
diameter.
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 Synchro
• The Synchro is a type of transducer which
transforms the angular position of the shaft into
an electric signal.
• It is used as an error detector and as a rotary
position sensor.
• The controls Synchros is used for error detection
in positional control systems. Their systems
consist two units. They are
• Synchro Transmitter
• Synchro receiver

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 Synchro
Synchro Transmitter

• Their construction is
similar to the three phase
alternator. The stator of
the synchros is made of
steel for reducing the iron
losses. The stator is
slotted for housing the
three phase windings.
The axis of the stator
winding is kept 120º apart
from each other.
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 Synchro
• The AC voltage is applied to the rotor of the
transmitter. The coils of the stator windings are
connected in star. The rotor of the Synchro is a
dumbbell in shape, and a concentric coil is
wound on it.

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 Synchro
• The voltage is applied to the rotor of the
transmitter. The voltage applied to the rotor
induces the magnetizing current and an
alternating flux along its axis. The voltage is
induced in the stator winding .
• The output of the transmitter is given to stator
winding of the control transformer.
• The current of the same magnitude flow through
the transmitter and control transformer of the
Synchros. Because of the circulating current, the
flux is established between the air gap flux of the
control transformer.
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 Synchro
• The flux axis of the control transformer and the
transmitter is aligned in the same position.
• The voltage generated by the rotor of control
transformer is equal to the cosine of the angle
between the rotors of the transmitter and the
controller.
• This voltage is used to detect the error.

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 Steeper Motor
• A stepper motor is an electromechanical
device which converts electrical pulses into
discrete mechanical movements. The shaft or
spindle of a stepper motor rotates in discrete
step increments when electrical command
pulses are applied to it in the proper
sequence. The sequence of the applied
pulses is directly related to the direction of
motor shafts rotation. The speed of the motor
shafts rotation is directly related to the
frequency of the input pulses.

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 Steeper Motor
• In a stepper motor a torque is developed when
the magnetic fluxes of the rotor and stator are
displaced from each other.
• The torque output produced by the motor is
proportional to the intensity of the magnetic flux
generated when the winding is energized.
Stepper Motor Types
• There are three basic stepper motor types.
 Variable-reluctance
 Permanent-magnet
 Hybrid

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 Stepper Motor- Variable-reluctance (VR)
• Figure 1 shows a cross
section of typical V.R.
stepper motor. This type of
motor consists of a soft iron
multi-toothed rotor and a
wound stator. When the
stator windings are
energized with DC current
the poles become
magnetized.
• Rotation occurs when the rotor teeth are
attracted to the energized stator poles. Rotor
tries to achieve minimum reluctance
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Stepper Motor- Permanent Magnet (PM)

• This is also referred as a “tin can” motor. The

permanent magnet step motor is a low cost and
low resolution type motor with typical step
angles of 7.5° to 15°. (48 – 24 steps/revolution).
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 Stepper Motor- Permanent Magnet (PM)
• The rotor is magnetized with alternating north and
south poles situated in a straight line parallel to
the rotor shaft. These magnetized rotor poles
provide an increased magnetic flux intensity
• Because of this the PM motor exhibits improved
torque characteristics when compared with the
VR type.

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 Tachogenerators
• A tachogenerator (tachometer) is an
electromechanical device which produces an
output voltage that is proportional to its shaft
speed.
• There are two types of tachogenerators.
• DC tachogenerator and AC tachogenerator
• DC tachogenerator
• The dc tachogenerator resembles a small dc
motor in that it comprises a stator with a
permanent magnet field, a rotating armature
circuit, and a commutator and brush assembly.
The rotor is connected to the shaft to be
measured.
• The output voltage of the tachogenerator is
proportional to the angular velocity of the shaft.
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 Tachogenerators

• The output voltage measured by Moving Coil

Voltmeter is scaled to rpm in a voltmeter. The
scheme is shown above.
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 Tachogenerators
AC tachogenerator
• The DC tachometer generator uses the
commutator and brushes which have many
disadvantages. The AC tachometer generator
designs for reducing the problems. The AC
tachometer has stationary armature and rotating
magnetic field. Thus, the commutator and
brushes are absent in AC tachometer generator.
• The rotating magnetic field induces the EMF in
the stationary coil of the stator. The amplitude
and frequency of the induced emf are equivalent
to the speed of the shaft. Thus, either amplitude
or frequency is used for measuring the angular
velocity.
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 Tachogenerators
• The below mention circuit is used for measuring
the speed of the rotor by considering the
amplitude of the induced voltage. The induces
voltages are rectified and then passes to the
capacitor filter for smoothening the ripples of
rectified voltages

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 Tachogenerators
AC tachogenerator (Drag cup rotor type)
• The ac tachogenerator resembles a two phase
induction motor in that it comprises two stator
windings arranged in space quadrature, and a
rotor which is not conductively connected to any
external circuit.
• A sinusoidal voltage is applied to the reference
winding . When rotor is stationary , no emf is
induced in the output winding and therefore the
output voltage will be zero.
• When motor turns, a voltage at the reference
frequency is induced in the output winding. The
magnitude of the output voltage is proportional to
the rotational speed.
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Tachogenerators

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 References
• https://www.elprocus.com/
• https://circuitdigest.com
• https://circuitglobe.com/

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 HAPPY LEARNING!
Dr. Mahesh S. Narkhede
Electrical Engineering Department
Government Polytechnic, Mumbai
msnarkhede@ymail.com
https://drmaheshsnarkhede.wordpress.com/ 32