Induction Motors Construction

Induction Motors

Construction

A 3-phase induction motor has two main parts (i) stator and (ii) rotor. The rotor is separated from the stator by a small air-gap which ranges from 0.4 mm to 4 mm, depending on the power of the motor.

1. Stator

It consists of a steel frame which encloses a hollow, cylindrical core made up of thin laminations of silicon steel to reduce hysteresis and eddy current losses. A number of evenly spaced slots are provided on the

inner periphery of the laminations [See Fig.(1)]. The insulated connected to form a balanced 3-phase star or delta connected circuit. The 3-phase stator winding is wound for a definite number of poles as per requirement of speed. Greater the number of poles, lesser is the speed of the motor and vice-versa. When 3-phase supply is given to the stator winding, a

rotating magnetic field of constant magnitude is produced. This rotating field induces currents in the rotor by electromagnetic induction.

Fig.(1)]

2. Rotor

The rotor, mounted on a shaft, is a hollow laminated core having slots on its outer periphery. The winding placed in these slots (called rotor winding) may be one of the following two types:

(i)                         Squirrel cage type

(ii)                     Wound type

(i) Squirrel cage rotor. It consists of a laminated cylindrical core having parallel slots on its outer periphery. One copper or aluminum bar is placed

in each slot. All these bars are joined at each end by metal rings called end rings [See Fig. .2)]. This forms a permanently short-circuited winding which is indestructible. The entire construction (bars and end rings) resembles a squirrel cage and hence the name. The rotor is not connected electrically to the supply but has current induced in it by transformer action

from the stator. Those induction motors which employ squirrel cage rotor are called squirrel cage induction motors. Most of 3-phase induction motors use

squirrel cage rotor as it has a remarkably simple and robust construction enabling it to operate in the most adverse circumstances. However, it

suffers from the disadvantage of a low starting torque. It is because the rotor bars are permanently short-circuited and it is not possible to add any external resistance to the rotor circuit to have a large starting torque.

Fig.( .2)

(ii) Wound rotor. It consists of a laminated cylindrical core and carries a 3- phase winding, similar to the one on the stator [See Fig. (3)]. The rotor

winding is uniformly distributed in the slots and is usually star-connected. The open ends of the rotor winding are brought out and joined to three

insulated slip rings mounted on the rotor shaft with one brush resting on each slip ring. The three brushes are connected to a 3-phase star-connected rheostat as shown in Fig. (.4). At starting, the external resistances are included in the rotor circuit to give a large starting torque. These resistances are gradually reduced to zero as the motor runs up to speed. The external resistances are used during starting period only. When the motor

attains normal speed, the three brushes are short-circuited so that the wound rotor runs like a squirrel cage rotor.

Fig. (3)

 

 

Fig. (.4).