The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to maintain and develop our own domestic manufacturing base.
Total UK GDP fell by 20.4% in the three months to June 2020, and the manufacturing sector share fell by 20.2%. (ONS)
Our proposal concerns a novel high torque electrical machine which has potential for wide application ranging from robotics, machine tools and marine propulsion, to wind turbines, wave and tidal energy.
BEDL have recently developed and patented a novel type of electrical machine which relies on magnetic gearing to produce high torque economically from a compact space envelope.
One important measure of a compact high torque electrical machine is the airgap shear stress. This indicates the force produced by the machine for each unit of area at the airgap between the moving part and the stationary part of the machine, either a motor or generator.
The airgap shear stress of the BEDL machines is higher than that of any other rotating electrical machines, either conventional or superconducting. Values up to around 700kN/m/m are possible for the BEDL machines with standard materials, most published superconducting machine data implies values less than 200kN/m/m..
At the heart of the new machines is a magnetic worm and wheel which is functionally the same as a standard mechanical worm and wheel, but instead of mechanical teeth which mesh with each other, there is no physical contact in the magnetic system allowing very low friction and the ability to slip without damage if overloaded.
Recent machines designed and built by BEDL have included a 1.2m o/d rotary machine with 63:1 gearing in a single stage.
The proposed new project:
Design, build and test a new integrated-generator magnetic worm machine for our existing 1.2m o/d rotary machine. This is an essential step towards demonstrating the full torque density of our new technology. Our previous proof-of-principle rig involved external motor/generators driving the magnetic worms via shafts but this does not allow the magnetic wheel to be fully populated with magnetic worms as in the case of this new test rig. The new rig will also enable the development of the control system required for this novel machine.
We will carry out a series of costed FEED (Front End Engineering Design) studies:
A 15MW windturbine generator FEED study.
A FEED study for a marine propulsion motor.
A FEED study for a tidal generator.