ABSTRACT
ROLAND SIEGWART1, HANNES BLEULER1, ALFONS TRAXLER2
1EPFL (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) Lausanne, Switzerland 2Mecos Traxler AG, Winterthur, Switzerland
1.1. INTRODUCTION
An Active Magnetic Bearing (AMB) can completely support a body by magnetic forces alone without any mechanical contact. The technically interesting ferromagnetic forces are generated by permanent magnets or actively controlled electromagnets, but it is known since a long time that stable contact-free suspension in all degrees of freedom (DOFs) cannot be achieved by permanent magnets only. Magnetic bearings based on permanent magnets, which are not covered her, are passive elements unable to control rotor vibration actively and used only in conjunction with other bearing systems.
