6.

SPECIAL MOTOR

6.3 Construction, Principle of different motors.

operation and Application of Stepper motor

 Stepper Motor
What is Stepper Motor?
Definition: AStepper Motor is a brushless electromechanical device which converts
the train of electric pulses applied at their excitation windings into precisely defined step-by-step
mechanical shaft rotation. The shaft of the motor rotates through a fixed angle for each discrete pulse.
This rotation can be linear or angular.It gets one step movement for a single pulse input. Its ability to
make electronically controlled precise movements have made these motors find application in many
felids like surveillance cameras, Hard disk, CNC machines, 3D Printers, Robotics, Assembly robots,
Laser cutters and much more
Construction of stepper motor
Like all electric motors, it has stator and rotor. The rotor is the movable part which has no windings,
brushes and a commutator. Usually the rotors are either variable reluctance or permanent magnet kind.
The stator is often constructed with multipole and multiphase windings, usually of three or four phase
windings wound for a required number of poles decided by desired angular displacement per input pulse.
Unlike other motors it operates on a programmed discrete control pulses that are applied to the stator
windings via an electronic drive. The rotation occurs due to the magnetic interaction between poles of
sequentially energized stator winding and poles of the rotor.

There are several types of stepper motors are available in

today’s market over a wide range of sizes, step count,
constructions, wiring, gearing, and other electrical
characteristics. As these motors are capable to operate in
discrete nature, these are well suitable to interface with digital
control devices like computers.
Due to the precise control of speed, rotation, direction, and
angular position, these are of particular interest in industrial
process control systems, CNC machines, robotics,
manufacturing automation systems, and instrumentation.
Types of stepper motors

There are mainly three types of stepper motors based on construction, which are:

1) Variable reluctance stepper motor: They have iron core rotor which is

attracted towards the stator poles and provide movement by minimum

reluctance between stator and rotor.

2) Permanent magnet stepper motor: They have permanent magnet rotor and

they are repelled or attracted towards the stator according to pulses applied.

3) Hybrid stepper motor: They are combination of Variable reluctance and

permanent magnet stepper motor.

1) Variable Reluctance Stepper Motor
As the name suggests, the angular position of the rotor depends on the reluctance of the magnetic
circuit formed between the stator poles (teeth) and rotor teeth.
It consists of a wound stator and a soft iron multi-tooth rotor. The stator has a stack of silicon steel
laminations on which stator windings are wound. Usually, it is wound for three phases which are
distributed between the pole pairs.
The number of poles on stator thus formed is equal to an even multiple of the number of phases for
which windings are wounded on stator. In the figure below, the stator has 12 equally spaced projecting
poles where each pole is wound with an exciting coil. These three phases are energized from of a DC
source with the help of solid state switches.
The rotor carries no windings and is of salient pole type made entirely of slotted steel laminations. The
rotor pole’s projected teeth have the same width as that of stator teeth. The number of poles on stator
differs to that of rotor poles, which provides the ability to self start and bidirectional rotation of the
motor.
The relation of rotor poles in terms of stator poles for a three
phase stepper motor is given as, Nr = Ns ± (Ns / q). Here Ns =
12, and q= 3, and hence Nr = 12 ± (12 / 3) = 16 or 8. An 8-pole
construction rotor without any excitation is illustrated below.
Working of Variable Reluctance Stepper Motor
The stepper motor works on the principle that the rotor aligns in a particular position with
the teeth of the excitation pole in a magnetic circuit wherein minimum reluctance path exist.
Whenever power is applied to the motor and by exciting a particular winding, it produces its
magnetic field and develops its own magnetic poles.
Due to the residual magnetism in the rotor magnet poles, it will cause the rotor to move in
such a position so as to achieve minimum reluctance position and hence one set of poles of
rotor aligns with the energized set of poles of the stator. At this position, the axis of the
stator magnetic field matches with the axis passing through any two magnetic poles of the
rotor.
When the rotor aligns with stator poles, it has enough magnetic force to hold the shaft from
moving to the next position, either in clockwise or counter clockwise direction.
Consider the schematic diagram of a 3-phase, 6 stator poles and 4 rotor teeth is shown in
figure below. When the phase A-A’ is supplied with a DC supply by closing the switch -1,
the winding become a magnet which results one tooth become North and other South. So the
stator magnetic axis lies along these poles.
Due to the force of attraction, stator coil North
Pole attracts nearest rotor tooth of opposite
polarity, i.e., South and South Pole attract nearest
rotor tooth of opposite polarity, i.e., North. The
rotor then adjusts to its minimum reluctance
position where the rotor magnetic axis exactly
matches with stator magnetic axis.

When the phase B-B’ is energized by closing

switch -2 keeping phase A-A’ remain de-
energized by opening switch-1, winding B-B’
will produce the magnetic flux and hence the
stator magnetic axis shifts along the poles
thus formed by it. Hence the rotor shifts to the
least reluctance with magnetized stator teeth
and rotates through an angle of 30 degrees in
the clockwise direction.
 When the switch-3 is energized after opening switch-2, the phase C-C’ is energized, the rotor
teeth align with new position by moving through an additional angle of 30 degrees. By this way,
the rotor moves clockwise or counterclockwise direction by successively exciting stator windings
in a particular sequence. The step angle of this 3-phase 4-pole rotor teeth stepper motor is
expressed as, 360/ (4 × 3) = 30 degrees (as step angle = 360 / Nr × q).

The step angle can be further reduced by increasing the number of poles on the stator and rotor, in
such case motors are often wound with additional phase windings. This can also be achieved by a
adopting different construction of stepper motors such as multistack arrangement and reduction
gear mechanism.
2) Permanent Magnet Stepper Motor
In this motor, the stator is of multipolar and its construction is similar to that of variable
reluctance stepper motor as discussed above. It consists of slotted periphery on which
stator coils are wound. It has projected poles on the slotted structure where the wound
windings can be two or three or four-phase.
The end terminals of all these windings are bought out and connected to the DC excitation
via solid state switches in the drive circuit.

The rotor is made up of a permanent

magnet material like a ferrite that can be
in the shape of either cylindrical or
salient pole, but usually it is of smooth
cylindrical type. The rotor designed to
have an even number of permanent
magnetic poles with alternate North and
South polarities.
Working of Permanent Magnet Stepper Motor
The operation of this motor works on the principle that unlike poles attract each other and like poles
repel each other. When the stator windings are excited with a DC supply, it produces magnetic flux and
establishes the North and South poles. Due to the force of attraction and repulsion between permanent
magnet rotor poles and stator poles, the rotor starts moving up to the position for which pulses are
given to the stator.
Consider a 2-phase stepper motor with two permanent magnetic rotor poles as shown in the figure
below. When the phase A is energized with a positive with
respect to the A’, the windings establish North and
South poles. Due to the force of attraction, the
rotor poles align with stator poles such that the
magnetic pole axis of rotor adjusts with that of
stator as shown in figure.
When the excitation is switched to B phase and
switching off phase A, the rotor further adjusts to
magnetic axis of phase B, and thus rotates through
90 degrees in clockwise direction.
Next, if the phase A is energized with a negative current with respect to A’, the formation of stator poles
causes the rotor to move through another 90 degrees in clockwise direction.
In the same way, if the phase B is excited with negative current by closing phase A switch, the rotor
rotates through another 90 degrees in the same direction. Next, if the phase A is excited with positive
current, the rotor comes to the original position thus making a 360 degrees complete revolution. This
implies that, whenever the stator is excited, the rotor tends to rotate through 90 degrees in clockwise
direction.

The step angle of this 2-phase 2-pole

permanent magnet rotor motor is expressed
as, 360/ (2 × 2) = 90 degrees. The step size
can be reduced by energizing two phases
simultaneously or a sequence of 1-phase ON
and 2-phase ON modes with a proper polarity.
3) Hybrid Stepper Motor
It is the most popular type of stepper motor as it provides better performance than permanent
magnet rotor in terms of step resolution, holding torque and speed. However, these motors are
more expensive than PM stepper motors. It combines the best features of both variable reluctance
and permanent magnet stepper motors. These motors are used in applications that require very
small stepping angle such as 1.5, 1.8 and 2.5 degrees.

Construction of Hybrid Stepper Motor

The stator of this motor is same as its permanent magnet or reluctance type counterpart. The
stator coils are wound on alternate poles. In this, the coils of different phases are wound on
each pole, usually two coils at a pole which is referred as a bifilar connection.

The rotor consists of a permanent magnet which is magnetized in axial direction to create a
pair of magnetic poles (N and S poles). Each pole is covered with uniformly spaced teeth.
The teeth are made up of soft steel and two section, of which on each pole are misaligned
each other by a half-tooth pitch.
Working of Hybrid Stepper Motor
This motor works similar to that of permanent magnet
stepper motor. The figure above shows 2-phase, 4-pole, 6-
tooth rotor hybrid stepper motor. When the phase A-A’ is
excited with a DC supply, keeping B-B’ unexcited, the
rotor aligns such that the south pole of the rotor faces
north pole of the stator while north pole of rotor faces
south pole of the stator.

Now, if the phase B-B’ is excited, keeping A-A’ switched off in such a way that upper pole becomes north
and lower becomes south, then the rotor will align to a new position by moving through counterclockwise
direction. If the phase B-B’ is oppositely excited such that the upper pole becomes south and lower
becomes north, then the rotor will turn clockwise direction.
By a proper sequence of pulses to the stator, the motor will turn in desired direction. For every excitation,
rotor will get locked into new position, and even if excitation is removed motor still maintains its locked
condition due to the permanent magnet excitation. The step angle of this 2-phase, 4-pole, 6-tooth rotor
motor is given as 360/ (2 × 6) = 30 degrees. In practice, hybrid motors are constructed with more number
of rotor poles in order to get high angular resolution.
 Modes of operation in Stepper Motor
Since the stator of the stepper mode is built of different pairs of coils, each coil pair can be excited in
many different methods, this enabling the modes to be driven in many different modes. The following
are the broad classifications
1) Wave step or One phase ON mode
2) Full step or Two phase ON mode
3) Half step or One phase ON and Two ohase ON mode
4) Microstepping
1.One phase-on stepping or Wave Stepping:
Wave step mode is the simplest of all other modes in which
only one winding is energized at any given time. Each coil
of the phase is connected to the supply alternatively. The
table below shows the order through which coils are
energized in a 4-phase stepper motor.
In this mode motor gives maximum step angle compared to
all other modes. It is the simplest and most commonly used
mode for stepping; however the torque produced is less as it
uses some part of the total winding at a given time.
2. Two Phase-on stepping:
In this drive or mode, two stator phases are energized simultaneously at any given
time. When two phases are energized together, the rotor will experience the torque
from both phases and comes to the equilibrium position, which will be interleaved
between two adjacent wave step positions or 1-phase excitations. So this step provides
better holding torque than wave step. The table below shows the full step drive for 4-
phase stepper motor.
3. Half Step Mode(One phase ON and Two phase ON mode)
The Half Step mode is the combination of one phase-on and two-phase on modes. In this, single
phase and dual phase excitations are carried out alternatively, i.e., one-phase ON, two-phases ON,
and so on. The step angle in this mode becomes half of the full step angle. This drive mode has
highest torque and stability compared to all other modes. The table containing phase pulsing
sequence for a 4-phase motor in half stepping is given below.
4Microstepping Mode
In this mode, each motor step is subdivided into several small steps, even hundreds of
fixed positions, therefore a greater positioning resolution is obtained. In this, currents
through the windings are continually varied in order to get very small steps. In this,
two phases are excited simultaneously, but with the unequal currents in each phase.
Advantages of Stepper Motor
At standstill position, the motor has full torque. No matter if there is no moment or changing position.
It has a good response to starting, stopping and reversing position.As there is no contact brushes in the stepper motor,
It is reliable and the life expectancy depends on the bearings of the motor.
1) The motor rotation angle is directly proportional to the input signals.
2) It is simple and less costly to control as motor provides open loop control when responding to the digital input
signals.
3) The motor speed is directly proportional to the input pulses frequency, this way a wide range of rotational speed
can be achieved.
4) When load is coupled to the shaft, it is still possible to realize the synchronous rotation with low speed.
5) The exact positioning and repeatability of movement is good as it has a 3-5% accuracy of a step where the error
is non cumulative from one step to another.
6) Stepper motors are safer and low cost (as compared to servo motors), having high torque at low speeds, high
reliability with simple construction which operates at any environment.

Disadvantages of Stepper Motors

1) Stepper motors having low Efficiency.
2) It has low Accuracy.
3) Its torque declines very quickly with speed.
4) As stepper motor operates in open loop control, there is no feedback to indicate potential missed steps.
5) It has low torque to inertia ratio means it can’t accelerate the load very quickly.
Stepper Motor Uses and Applications
Due to their properties, stepper motors are used in many applications where a simple
position control and the ability to hold a position are needed, including:

Video Cameras: Pan, Tilt,

Zoom, Focus
Printers: Printheads, Paper DSLR Cameras: Aperture/Focus
Feed, Scan Bar Regulation

ATM Machines: Bill

Movement, Tray Elevators

Robots: Arms, End Effectors Engraving Machines: XY Table

Motion
Applications of Stepper Motors

1) Stepper motors are used in automated production equipments and automotive gauges

and industrial machines like packaging, labeling, filling and cutting etc.

2) It is widely used in security devices such as security & surveillance cameras.

3) In medical industry, stepper motors are widely used in samples, digital dental

photography, respirators, fluid pumps, blood analysis machinery and medical scanners

etc.

4) They are used in consumer electronics in image scanners, photo copier and printing

machines and in digital camera for automatic zoom and focus functions and positions.

5) Stepper motors also used in elevators, conveyor belts and lane diverters.