(7 - 36)Stepper Motors 1 Introduction Stepper motor is known by its important property to convert a train of input pulses i.e. a square wave pulses into a precisely defined increment in the shaft position. Each pulse moves the shaft through a fixed angle. So the stepper motor is an electromechanical device which actuates a train of step movements of shaft in response to train of input pulses, The step movement may be angular or linear. There is one-one relationship between an input pulse and step movement of the shaft. Each pulse input actuates one step movement of the shaft. When a given number of drive pulses are supplied to the motor, the shaft gets tured through a known angle. The angle through which the motor tums or shaft moves for each pulse is known as the step angle, expressed in degrees. ‘As such angle is dependent on the number of input pulses, the motor is suitable for controlling position by controlling the number of input pulses. Such system, used to control the position is called position control system. The average motor speed is proportional to the rate at which the input pulse command is delivered. When the rate is Jow, the motor rotates in steps but for high rate of pulses, due to inertia, it rotates smoothly like d.c. motors, Due to this property it is also used in speed control systems. These motors are available in sub-fractional horse power ratings, As the input command is in pulses, the stepper motor is compatible with modern digital equipments. Due to its compatibility with digital equipments, its market is greatly increased in recent times. The stepper motors are widely used in X-Y plotters, floppy disk drives, machine tools, process control systems, robotics, printers, tape drives and variety of other industrial applications. A.2 Types of Stepper Motors The stepper motors can be divided into three categories : 1. Variable Reluctance Stepper Motors 2. Permanent Magnet Stepper Motors 3. Hybrid Stepper Motors Let us see the details of each. (a-1)Electrical Drives & Controls: A-2 Appendix - A A.3 Variable Reluctance Motors It is the most basic type of stepper motor. This helps to explain the principle of operation of the stepper motors. The motor has a stator which is usually wound for three phases. The stator has six salient poles with concentrated exciting windings around each one of them. The stator construction is laminated and assembled in a single stack. The number of poles on the stator and rotor are different. This gives the motor ability, |. of bidirection rotation and 2. self starting capability. Stator winding Fig. Ad Schematic arrangemant of variable reluctance motor swt sw swe $ switches SW3. sw3 sw2 Fig. A.2 Driving Cireuit The rotor is made out of slotted steel laminations, If the number of stator poles are N, and the number of rotor poles are N, then for a three phase motor, the rotor poles interms of N, and q are given by, N=, (3%) For example for N, = 6 and q = 3, the rotor poles are, = 8) N, = 6+(3}= 8,4 For our discussion, 4 pole totor construction is selected. So rotor has 4 salient poles without any exciting winding as shown in the Fig. A.1. The coils wound around diametrically opposite poles are connected in series and the three phases are energised from a d.c. source with the help of switches. The basic driving circuit is shown in the Fig. A2.Electrical Drives & Controls AS Appendix « position rather than along BB’. Hence rotor gets aligned along this moves through a half step ie. 15% A logical extension of this technique is to control the currents in the phase windings so that several stable equilibrium positions are created. Normally the step angle is reduced by triad 1 . ‘, ; . factor of 5, 5 ig 7g OF Gy This technique is called microstepping. A further reduction in step angle can be achieved by increasing the number of poles of the stator and rotor or by adopting different constructions such as, i) Using reductiongear mechanism ii) Using multistack arrangement A.3.4 Reduction Gear Stepper Motor Fig. A4 shows a reduction gear stepper motor. The stator has 8 salient poles and four phases for use as exciting winding. The rotor has 16 teeth and 18 slots uniformly distributed around. Each salient pole of the stator consists of two teeth, forming an interleaving slot of the same angular periphery as the rotor teeth or slots. When the coil A-A’ is excited, the resulting electromechanical torque brings the rotor to the position as shown in the Fig. A. Magnetic flux Rotor Stator pole ' Magnetic axis Fig. A.4 Reduction gear stepper motor