Commutator (electric)
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A commutator is an electrical switch that periodically reverses the current in an electric motor or electrical generator. A commutator is a common feature of direct current rotating machines. By reversing the current in the moving coil of a motor's armature, a steady rotating force (torque) is produced. Similarly, in a generator, reversing of the coil's connection to the external circuit produces unidirectional current in the circuit. The first commutator-type direct current machine was built by Hippolyte Pixii in 1832, based on a suggestion by André-Marie Ampère.
[edit] Principle of Operation
In the image to the right, direct electrical current flows through the circuit, driven by the battery. The commutator itself is the orange and blue curved segments. The brushes are dark gray and in contact with the commutator segments, and the rotor winding is violet. The rotor winding and the commutator segments are rigidly fixed to the rotor.
As the rotor turns, the current in the winding reverses every time the commutator turns through 180 degrees. This reversal of the winding current compensates for the fact that the winding has rotated 180 degrees relative to the fixed magnetic field (not shown). The current in the winding causes the fixed magnetic field to exert a rotational force (a torque) on the winding, making it turn.
Note that no practical, real-world motor or generator uses the commutators shown in these two examples. In these elementary diagrams, there is a dead position where the rotor will not spin.
For the image to the right, when the brushes make contact across both commutator segments, the commutator is shorted and current passes directly from one brush to the other across the commutator, doing no work in the rotor windings. For the image to the left, there is a dead spot when the brushes cross the insulation between the two segments and no current flows. In either case, the rotor can not begin to spin if it is stopped in this position.
All practical commutators contain at least three segments to prevent this dead spot in the rotation of the commutator.
[edit] Ring/Segment Construction
A commutator typically consists of a set of copper segments, fixed around part of the circumference of the rotating part of the machine (the rotor), and a set of spring-loaded brushes fixed to the stationary frame of the machine. The external source of current (for a motor) or electrical load (for a generator) is connected to the brushes. For small equipment the commutator segments can be stamped from sheet metal. For very large equipment the segments are made from a copper casting that is then machined into the final shape.
Each conducting segment on the armature of the commutator is insulated from adjacent segments. Initially when the technology was first developed, mica was used as an insulator between commutation segments. Later materials research into polymers brought the development of plastic spacers which are more durable and less prone to cracking, and have a higher and more uniform breakdown voltage than mica.
The segments are held onto the shaft using a dovetail shape on the edges or underside of each segment, using insulating wedges around the perimeter of each commutation segment. Due to the high cost of repairs, for small appliance and tool motors the segments are typically crimped permanently in place and cannot be removed; when the motor fails it is simply discarded and replaced. On very large industrial motors it is economical to be able to replace individual damaged segments, and so the end-wedge can be unscrewed and individual segments removed and replaced.
Commutator segments are connected to the coils of the armature, with the number of coils (and commutator segments) depending on the speed and voltage of the machine. Large motors may have hundreds of segments.
Friction between the segments and the brushes eventually causes wear to both surfaces. Carbon brushes, being made of a softer material, wear faster and may be designed to be replaced easily without dismantling the machine. Older copper brushes caused more wear to the commutator, causing deep grooving and notching of the surface over time. The commutator on small motors (say, less than a kilowatt rating) is not designed to be repaired through the life of the device. On large industrial equipment, the commutator may be re-surfaced with abrasives, or the rotor may be removed from the frame, mounted in a large metal lathe, and the commutator resurfaced by cutting it down to a smaller diameter. The largest of equipment can include a lathe turning attachment directly over the commutator.
[edit] Brush Construction
Early in the development of dynamos and motors, copper brushes were used to contact the surface of the commutator. However, these hard metal brushes tended to scratch and groove the smooth commutator segments, eventually requiring resurfacing of the commutator. As the copper brushes wear away, the dust and pieces of the brush could wedge between commutator segments, shorting them and reducing the efficiency of the device. Fine copper wire mesh or gauze provided better surface contact with less segment wear, but gauze brushes were more expensive than strip or wire copper brushes. The copper brush was eventually replaced by the carbon brush.
Carbon brushes tend to wear more evenly than copper brushes, and the soft carbon causes far less damage to the commutator segments. There is less sparking with carbon as compared to copper, and as the carbon wears away, the higher resistance of carbon results in fewer problems from the dust collecting on the commutator segments.
Copper and carbon are each better suited for a particular purpose. Copper brushes perform better with very low voltages and high amperage, while carbon brushes are better for high voltage and low amperage. Copper brushes typically carry 150 to 200 amperes per square inch of contact surface, while carbon only carries 40 to 70 amperes per square inch. The higher resistence of carbon also results in a greater voltage drop of 0.8 to 1.0 volts per contact, or 1.6 to 2.0 volts across the commutator.[3]
Due to the universal use of high voltage alternating current power in modern society, all commutators now use carbon brushes, while copper brushes are considered obsolete.
[edit] Brush Holders
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A spring is typically used with the brush, to maintain constant contact with the commutator. As the brush and commutator wear down, the spring steadily pushes the brush downwards towards the commutator. Eventually the brush wears small and thin enough that steady contact is no longer possible or it is no longer securely held in the brush holder, and so the brush must be replaced.
It is common for a flexible power cable to be directly attached to the brush, because current flowing through the support spring causes heating, which may lead to a loss of metal temper and a loss of the spring tension.
When a commutated motor or generator uses more power than a single brush is capable of conducting, an assembly of several brush holders are mounted in parallel across the surface of the very large commutator.
This parallel holder distributes current evenly across all the brushes, and permits a careful operator to remove a bad brush and replace it with a new one, even as the machine continues to spin fully powered and under load.
High power, high current commutated equipment is now uncommon, due to the less complex design of alternating current generators that permits a low current, high voltage spinning field coil to energize high current fixed-position stator coils. This permits the use of very small singular brushes in the alternator design.
Modern devices using carbon brushes usually have a maintenance-free design that requires no adjustment throughout the life of the device, using fixed-position brush holder slot and a combined brush-spring-cable assembly that fits into the slot. Replacement simply involves pulling out the old brush and inserting a new one.
[edit] Brush Contact Angle
The different brush types make contact with the commutator in different ways. Because copper brushes have the same hardness as the commutator segments, the rotor cannot be spun backwards against the ends of copper brushes without the copper digging into the segments and causing severe damage. Consequently strip/laminate copper brushes only make tangential contact with the commutator, while copper mesh and wire brushes use an inclined contact angle touching their edge across the segments of a commutator that can spin in only one direction.
The softness of carbon brushes permits direct radial end-contact with the commutator without damage to the segments, permitting easy reversal of rotor direction, without the need to reorient the brushes holders for operation in the opposite direction. In the case of a reaction-type carbon brush holder, carbon brushes may be reversely inclined with the commutator so that the commutator tends to push against the carbon for firm contact.
[edit] The Commutating Plane
The contact point of where a brush touches the commutator is referred to as the commutating plane. In order to conduct sufficient current to or from the commutator, the brush contact area is not a thin line but instead a rectangular patch across the segments. Typically the brush is wide enough to span 2.5 commutator segments.
[edit] Compensation for stator field distortion
Most introductions to motor and generator design start with a simple two-pole device with the brushes arranged at a perfect 90-degree angle from the field. This ideal is useful as a starting point for understanding how the fields interact but it is not how a motor or generator functions in actual practice.
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| On the left is an exaggerated example of how the field is distorted by the rotor.[8]On the right, iron filings show the distorted field across the rotor.[9] | |
In a real motor or generator, the field around the rotor is never perfectly uniform. Instead, the rotation of the rotor induces field effects which drag and distort the magnetic lines of the outer non-rotating stator.
The faster the rotor spins, the further this degree of field distortion. Because a motor or generator operates most efficiently with the rotor field at right angles the stator field, it is necessary to either retard or advance the brush position to put the rotor's field into the correct position to be at a right angle to the distorted field.
These field effects are reversed when the direction of spin is reversed. It is therefore difficult to build an efficient reversible commutated dynamo, since for highest field strength it is necessary to move the brushes to the opposite side of the normal neutral plane.
The effect can be considered to be analogous to timing advance in an internal combustion engine. Generally a dynamo that has been designed to run at a certain fixed speed will have its brushes permanently fixed to align the field for highest efficiency at that speed.[11]
[edit] Further Compensation for Self-Induction
In a coil of wire, the magnetic field of each wire compounds together to form a magnetic field that tends to resist changes in current flow, as if the current had inertia. This is known as self-induction.
In the coils of the rotor, there is a tendency for current to continue to flow for a brief moment after the brush has been reached. This energy is wasted as heat due to the brush spanning across several commutator segments and the current short-circuiting across the segments.
Spurious resistance is an apparant increase in the resistance in the armature winding, which is proportional to the speed of the armature, and is due to the lagging of the current.
In order to minimize sparking at the brushes due to this short-circuiting, the brushes are advanced a few degrees further yet, beyond the advance for field distortions. This moves the rotor winding undergoing commutation slightly forward into the stator field which is has magnetic lines in the opposite direction and which oppose the field in the stator. This opposing field helps to reverse the lagging self-inducting current flow in the stator.
So even for a rotor which is at rest and initially requires no compensation for spinning field distortions, the brushes should still be advanced beyond the perfect 90-degree angle as taught in so many beginners textbooks, in order to compensate for self-induction.
[edit] Limitations and alternatives
While commutators are widely applied in direct current machines, up to several thousand kilowatts in rating, they have limitations.
Brushes and copper segments wear. On small machines the brushes may last as long as the product (small power tools, appliances, etc.) but larger machines will require regular replacement of brushes and occasional resurfacing of the commutator. Brush-type motors may not be suitable for long service on aerospace equipment where maintenance is not possible.
The efficiency of direct current machines is limited by the "brush drop" due to the resistance of the sliding contact. This may be several volts, making low-voltage direct-current machines very inefficient. The friction of the brush on the commutator also absorbs some of the energy of the machine.
Lastly, the current density in the brush is limited and the maximum voltage on each segment of the commutator is also limited. Very large direct current machines, say, more than several megawatts rating, cannot be built with commutators. The largest motors and generators, of hundreds of megawatt ratings, are all alternating-current machines.
With the widespread availability of power semiconductors, it is now economic to provide electronic switching of the current in the motor windings. These "brushless direct current" motors eliminate the commutator; these can be likened to AC machines with a built-in DC to AC inverter.
[edit] See also
[edit] Patents
- Nikola Tesla - U.S. Patent 334,823 - Commutator for Dynamo Electric Machines - 1886 January 26.
- Nikola Tesla - U.S. Patent 382,845 - Commutator for Dynamo Electric Machines - 1888 May 15 -
[edit] References
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 21: Brushes and the Brush Gear, p. 300, fig. 327
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 21: Brushes and the Brush Gear, p. 304, fig. 329-332
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 21: Brushes and the Brush Gear, p. 313
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 21: Brushes and the Brush Gear, p. 307, fig. 335
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 21: Brushes and the Brush Gear, p. 312, fig. 339
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 20: Commutation and the Commutator, p. 284, fig. 300
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 20: Commutation and the Commutator, p. 285, fig. 301
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 20: Commutation and the Commutator, p. 264, fig. 286
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 20: Commutation and the Commutator, p. 265, fig. 287
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 20: Commutation and the Commutator, p. 286, fig. 302
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 20: Commutation and the Commutator, p. 285-287
- ^ Hawkins Electrical Guide, Theo. Audel and Co., 2nd ed. 1917, vol. 1, ch. 20: Commutation and the Commutator, p. 287, fig. 303
[edit] External articles
- "Commutator and Brushes on DC Motor". HyperPhysics, Physics and Astronomy, Georgia State University.
