Electrical Motors

What Is an Electrical Motor?

An electrical motor is an electric machine that changes electrical energy into mechanical energy.

The electrical motors mostly work by the interaction of the motor magnetic field with the electrical current in a wound wire to produce force in the manner of torque being supplied on the motor shaft.

Direct or alternating current supplies like an inverter, electrical generators, and a power grid can drive the electrical motor.

How an Electrical Motor Functions

The electrical motors function based on the principle that a current-carrying conductor produces a magnetic field around it. To better understand this, take an instance of two bar magnets with the poles facing each other but with a little space in between. Now imagine making a loop using a small length of a conductor wire.

Keep this loop in the space between the magnets so it is still within their sphere of influence. The ends of the loop are then to be connected to battery terminals. The loop also starts moving as the electricity starts flowing through the circuit.

This is because the magnetic field of the magnets interacts due to the electric current flowing in the conductor.

The loop has now become a magnet; because of this, the sides will be connected to the North and South Pole. This results in the continuous rotation of the loop, which is the working principle of electrical motors.

Types of Electrical Motors

Electrical motors are chosen based on the issues of voltage, frequency, torque, power, life cycle, and duty cycle, among others. In the essence of torque, we need to consider how much starting torque will be required for a certain use.

DC Motors

This is a type of rotary electrical machine that does the work of converting electrical energy from direct current into mechanical energy. Most common types of DC motors depend on the force created by the magnetic fields.

When the DC motor is powered, a magnetic field is created in the stator. The magnetic field attracts and repels magnets on the rotor, which results in the rotor’s rotation.

For the rotor’s continuous rotation, the commutator attached to brushes connected to the power source supplies current to the wire winding of the direct current motor.

2HP Electric Motors

A 2HP electric motor works the same as the 1HP electric motor by outputting power at its shaft. The power can be either of type DC or AC and single-phase or three-phase.

A 2HP electric motor is used in areas such as to power boat propellers, cooling fans of industries, and as an induction motor.

Industrial Motors

This type of electrical motor does the job of converting electrical power into mechanical power. Industrial motors either produce a linear or rotary force.

Although there are common types of industrial motors which are powered by direct current supplies, there are also some that are often energized by alternating current supplies. These include the generators and the power grid.

The main parts of the industrial motor include the rotor (or armature), the stator, the air gap, the commutator, and the winding. Common types of industrial motors include DC synchronous, AC synchronous, and AC induction.

Single Phase Motors

This rotary machine is powered electrically and can convert electrical energy into mechanical energy. It works by utilizing a single-phase power source. The single-phase motors have two types of wires: the live and the neutral wire.

These two wires take in the circuit’s functionality, and the AC that flows across them is always constant. These motors can only produce an alternating field and do not produce spinning magnetic fields.

Applications and Uses

An electrical motor is ideal in various applications, such as high voltage AC heating, motor vehicles, home appliances, and cooling and ventilating equipment. The primary uses include fans, blowers, turbines, rolling mills, paper mills, and compressors.