2019 22nd International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS)

Performance Analysis of Frameless Motors for Robots

Guo xibin1, Tong Wenming2, Li Pengfei1, Zhao Qing1 and Zheng Jigui1
1
Beijing Institute of Precise Mechatronics and Controls, China
2
Shenyang University of Technology, China
Email: [email protected]

Abstract —Aiming at the characteristics of robot

application, a technology research on 100W level frameless IV. MATERIALS AND PARAMETERS
motor for robot field is carried out. Taking the load
characteristics as the starting point and taking the Considering the application environment, service
performance as the landing point, the design of the motor is conditions, performance, cost and other factors, the selection
optimized from the point of design, material selection, of relevant parameters and materials is as follows, and the
electromagnetic characteristics and thermal characteristics. simulation analysis is carried out accordingly.
(1) Insulation Grade: Temperature Resistance Above 180
I. INTRODUCTION C
Frameless motor is a new type of torque motor. It is (2) Full tank rate: about 70%;
specially designed for small size, light weight, low inertia, (3) Groove insulation thickness: 0.2mm-0.25mm
compact structure and high power applications. It has strong (4) Overlapping coefficient: 0.97
adaptability and wide application prospects in robotic joints, (5) Silicon steel sheet model: 35W270 silicon steel sheet,
medical robots, sensor universal joints, UAV propulsion and characteristics as shown in Figure I.
guidance systems and other fields[1-2]. (6) Permanent magnet: N38EH, Br = 1.15T-1.25T (20
At present, the representative products of frameless motor ~C), 150 ~C demagnetization curve is linear, 180 ~C
include TBM (S) frameless moment motor of Kollmorgen, inflection point is not higher than 0.2. (In field calculation,
K series frameless servo motor of Parker, S-series high Br takes 1.2T)
performance frameless moment motor of Aerotech, and (7) Class H insulation is used for insulation grade.
frameless motor of Alliedmotion[3-4].
In this study, the scheme design and optimization analysis
of frameless motors for robots are carried out.

II. DESIGN INDICATORS OF FRAMELESS MOTOR

According to the design requirements, a frameless
permanent magnet synchronous motor is developed. The
FIGURE I MAGNETIZATION CURVE OF 35W270
main parameters and performance requirements of the motor
are shown in the table below.
TABLE I DESIGN REQUIREMENTS FOR FTAMELESS MOTORS V. DESIGN AND ANALYSIS
Parameter Numerical value In the process of load torque simulation calculation, the
Output power 117W
current of the motor is calculated according to sinusoidal
Voltage 48VDC
Rated speed 4300r/min current waveform, and Id=0 is used to simulate [5-6], except
Rated torque ≥259.8m N·m for the surface insertion rotor pole structure.
Rated current 4.65A 4.1 Electromagnetic Analysis
Volume φ60*22.7mm Firstly, the pole slot matching of 12 poles and 39 slots,
which are widely used in frameless motors, is analyzed. The
III. DESIGN ESSENTIALS pole groove matching has different winding phase modes, as
The main points and difficulties of this kind of motor shown in Fig. 2 (a) and Fig. 2 (b), respectively. These are
design include the following two aspects. also the simulation models of two different phase separation
(1) By optimizing the design, the designed motor meets motors. From th e results of simulation calculation, it can be
the requirement of torque output in a limited volume. It seen that the effective value of no-load back-EMF of the
mainly includes two parts of torque: new phase-splitting motor is larger and the torque ripple is
It can output continuous torque for a long time at rated smaller, as shown in Fig. 3 and Table 2.
current (limited by winding temperature rise);
Peak torque can be output under peak current (limited by
motor overload capacity and DC voltage). Peak torque index
refers to the corresponding parameters in the sample of
Colmorgan products [3-4].
(2) By optimizing the pole slot matching, rotor pole
structure and inclined slot, the cogging torque and torque
ripple can be reduced, the speed disturbance can be
restrained, and the running stability can be improved.
（a）RMXPRT AUTOMATIC PHASE- SEPARATION

978-1-7281-3398-0/19/$31.00 ©2019 IEEE

 2019 22nd International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS)

（b）NEW PHASE- SEPARATION (a)15 SLOTS 14 POLES

FIGURE II DISTRIBUTION OF TWO DIFFERENT PHASES OF
PHASE WINDING FOR 39S12P

（a）NO-LOAD BACK EMF FOR NEW PHASE-SEPARATED

(b)39 SLOTS 14 POLES

FIGURE IV ELECTRIC MOTOR MODEL WITH DIFFERENT POLE

GROOVES
TABLE III COMPARISON OF ELECTROMAGNETIC
PERFORMANCE OF MOTORS WITH DIFFERENT ELECTRODE
GROOVES
pole-slot match Effective
Average
Value of Line Torque ripple
torque
Back EMF
15 SLOTS 14 31.6V 556.59 2.37%
POLES
39 SLOTS 14 31.8V 561.96 1.09%
（b）NO-LOAD BACK EMF FOR RMXPRT AUTOMATIC PHASE- POLES

SEPARATION
FIGURE III UNLOADED BACK EMF WAVEFORMS UNDER
DIFFERENT PHASE SEPARATION MODES FOR 39S12P
TABLE II TORQUE RIPPLE IN PHASE SEPARATION OF
DIFFERENT WINDINGS OF MOTOR
Effective Value of Average Torque
Winding form
Line Back EMF torque ripple
Kollmorgen 31.3V 0.562N.m 2.60%
Rmxprt
AUTOMATIC 29.8V 0.529N.m 4.18%
PHASE
(a)15 SLOTS 14 POLES
Because the pole slot matching has a great influence on
the performance of frameless motor, the performance of 14
pole 15 slot and 14 pole 39 slot motors is further analyzed
based on the analysis of 12 pole 39 slot. The model is shown
in Fig. 4. The simulation results are shown in tables 3 and 5.
From the calculation results, it can be seen that the average
torque of 14 pole 39 slot is guaranteed, while the torque
ripple is very small, less than half of 14 pole 39 slot, so it
has significant performance advantages. (b)39 SLOTS 14 POLES

FIGURE V DIFFERENT POLAR SLOTS COMBINED WITH

UNLOADED BACK EMF WAVEFORMS
4.2 Stator Slot
Stator slot can effectively weaken the effect of slot effect
on torque ripple, but at the same time, it will also cause the
fundamental back-EMF and average torque of the motor to
 2019 22nd International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS)

decrease significantly. Therefore, other measures should be （a）TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION OF MOTOR RADIAL
taken to improve the back EMF and the average SECTION
electromagnetic torque when the inclined slot process is
adopted. The results are shown in Table 4.
TABLE IV EFFECT OF CHUTE ON NO-LOAD EMI AND TORQUE
RIPPLE
parameter Unoblique oblique half oblique one
slot pitch pitch
Effective 31.3V 29.9V 28.2V
Value of Line
Back EMF
Average torque 0.562Nm 0.499Nm 0.481Nm
Torque ripple 2.60% 1.85% 1.18%
（b）WINDING TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION IN MOTOR SLOT
4.3 stator slotting FIGURE VII TEMPERATURE DISTRIBUTION OF 14-POLE 39-SLOT
A small half-circle of 0.5mm at the top of the stator teeth MOTOR (AMBIENT TEMPERATURE 25 C)
is used as an auxiliary groove to weaken the torque ripple.
VI. Prototype
The motor structure is shown in the figure. From the
The physical picture of the frameless motor is shown in Fig. 8。
calculation results in the table, it can be seen that the
opening of auxiliary slot can reduce the torque ripple by
0.25 percentage points, while the average torque of the
motor decreases by about 2%. The simulation model and
results are shown in Fig. 6 and Table 5.

（a）PHOTOGRAPHS OF ROTOR

FIGURE VI SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM OF THE STRUCTURE OF THE

STATOR OPENING AUXILIARY SLOT

TABLE V EFFECT OF AUXILIARY SLOT ON NO-LOAD EMI AND

TORQUE
Effective
Auxiliary Value of Average Torque
（b）PHOTOGRAPHS OF STATOR
slot Line Back torque ripple
EMF FIGURE VIII PROTOTYPE
0.5mm 29.9V 550.65 2.35% Table 6 compares the test data of the motor with the parameters of the
0mm 31.3V 562.46 2.60% simulation data. It can be seen that the design value is in good agreement
with the experimental value, indicating that the motor design is reasonable
and can effectively meet the index requirements.
4.4 Thermal Analysis
The thermal analysis of the scheme of 14 poles 39 slots is
carried out. When the ambient temperature is 25 C, the
maximum temperature of the motor winding is 145.8 C, and
the temperature requirement of the H-class insulation grade
is full load. The results of simulation and comparison are
shown in Fig. 7.
(a) Temperature Distribution of Radial Section of Motor
(b) Winding temperature distribution in motor slot

FIGURE IX REAL MEASUREMENT OF BACK EMF OF FRAMELESS MOTOR

Figure 9 shows the measured waveform of the line back

EMF of the motor in the case of towing. The simulation
results are in agreement with the experimental data. The
specific data refer to Table 6.
 2019 22nd International Conference on Electrical Machines and Systems (ICEMS)

TABLE X TEST DATA

parameter Design value Measured value
Output Power 117W 117W

Voltage 48VDC 48VDC

Rated speed 4300r/min 4300r/min

Rated torque 260mNm 260mNm

Rated current 4.65A 4.51A

Number of poles 14 14

Number of slots 39 39

VII. SUMMARY
In this paper, a 100W grade frameless motor for robotics
is proposed. Based on the load characteristics and
performance, the system optimization design of the motor is
carried out from the design points, material selection,
electromagnetic characteristics, thermal characteristics and
the prototype was developed ,the load test was completed.
The frame-less motor has the following characteristics:
(1) Frameless motor interface is flexible, easy to integrate
with harmonics, sensors, etc., to build a highly integrated
motion execution system;
(2) The frame-less motor has low torque ripple, which is
especially suitable for high precision motion control system.
(3) Frameless motor has high efficiency and can
effectively improve the endurance ability.
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