A novel contactless rotary-to-linear magnetic actuator

Mechanical linear actuators are employed extensively in various industrial applications where a linear motion is required. Typical linear mechanical actuators such as ball screws, chain drives, scotch yokes and rack-and-pinion systems convert a rotary motion into a linear motion using different mechanisms. In this paper, a novel magnetic rotary-to-linear actuator is introduced. The proposed actuator utilizes permanent magnets to transmit mechanical power from a rotary part (the rotor) to a linear part (the slider) or vice versa. There is no mechanical contact between the rotor and the slider which results in higher reliability, less maintenance requirements and longer lifetime. Although, this rotary-to-linear system is intended to replace mechanical linear actuators, it could also be used in linear-to-rotary systems such as in wave energy converters. The system was analyzed and simulated using 3-D Finite Element Analysis (FEA). Moreover, a prototype was built, and the concept of operation was experimentally verified.