How Linear Induction Motors Work
Linear induction motors utilize alternating current (or simply AC) electric motors that have had their stators unrolled, thus allowing the motor to produce a linear force, rather than rotational torque, along its length. Typically, linear induction motors are actuators of the Lorentz type. This means that the force they produce is directly proportional to the magnetic field the current produces when passed through the device, rising at it rises, falling as it falls.
Indeed, the magnetic force constituent of the Lorentz force is well-known as being responsible for producting motional electromagnetic force. This is the phenomenon that underlies the function of a great many types of electric generators. Simply described, whenever a conductive piece of metal moves through a magnetic field, the magnetic force produced by the field attempts to force electrons through the wire, and in so doing creates the electromagnetic field.
Both high and low acceleration linear motors have their purposes, with lower acceleration being put to work by any company that manufactures large-scale machines like maglev trains, as well as in various similar transportation technologies. Higher acceleration linear induction motors are, generally speaking, significantly shorter, and are designed to bring an object up to very high speeds before releasing it, as is the case with roller coasters.
Linear induction motors first showed up on the scientific scene in the 1940’s, when Eric Laithwaite, a professor at the Imperial College of London, succeeded in developing the first working prototype of the machine. This model, in a manner similar to many future models, produced its force by means of a moving linear magnetic field, which acted on conductors within the field. The field was capable of inducing eddying currents in the conductors. The repulsion this created between the new magnetic field and the original field would result in the conductor being forced away from the stator and carried away in the direction of the moving field. These are the motional properties that have frequently compelled people to use linear induction motors as a means of transportation, including in Tokyo’s Toei Oedo Line and Bombardier’s Advanced Rapid Transit system.
In Italy, Jobs has been producing high speed machinery of this nature since the 1980s, and manufactures many of the machines actually used to make linear induction motors, including automated milling systems, machines that are used around the world by some of the most high-tech manufacturers in existence.
Not just on the forefront of manufacturing in terms of AC linear motors or milling systems, Jobs has also learnt from the current global tendency towards outsourcing, exporting upwards of 80% of the work on the products it manufactures to companies in countries better equipped for high-efficiency production than Italy. As of the present day, Jobs only employs around 200 people, but is considered to be a true benchmark company in fields like car industry, aeronautics, engineering and energy production. Due to the company’s strong focus on eliminating heavy-wearing mechanical components, Jobs is known for elegant products that last forever and run silently, improving the quality of working environments wherever they’re incorporated.
