Asynchronous couplings providing a high level of drivetrain protection and flexibility

Eddy current or induction couplings and are used to provide a torque limiting power transmission to prevent drivetrain failure under sudden shock loads for example. The couplings are extremely robust in nature and with the correct design for the application can be very efficient. The torque profile can be tailored to provide the ability to connect shafts rotating at different speeds and safely re-engage without introducing drive train shock loads. The devices can be purely passive with permanent magnet excitation, or active with wound field excitation, which allows the load capacity to be controlled and the systems to be rapidly de-coupled.

Advantages

• Low cost
• Robust
• Overload protection
• Can safely re-connect faulted drive systems at different speeds
• Filters harmful torque ripple

Each application requirement leads to a differing design where the requirements of the torque speed profile and efficiency are balanced with the manufacturing complexity and system cost. Magnomatics have designed a wide range of transmission couplings for areas such as high performance weight optimised aerospace applications, robust high shock industrial drives and standby power generation systems.

Magnomatics have extensive modelling capabilities for optimising eddy current couplings, in terms of torque-speed characteristics, losses, dynamic behaviour and thermal effects in order to achieve the most compact solution for given operating conditions