Investigation of thermal effect in permanent magnet linear motor stage

Thermally induced deformation has become more of a concern for precision machines as accuracy is getting more stringent. Unlike other indirect drives which are possible to isolate or place rotating motors, which are heat sources, away from the working area. A linear motor is a direct drive system which is heat source and placed near to the working area. Therefore, this thermal effect characteristic study is conducted here to find out the effect of heat that is transferred and dissipated around the working area, causing unwanted deformation. The surface area joining the linear motor coil to the application carriage is large. It will be inaccurate to assume a constant temperature or heat flux through the entire surface. The temperature of the surface is different for different location and time. Experiments are conducted to investigate the surface temperature and heat flux profile in different application processes. Finally, the result of this investigation can define the heat source accurately so that a further study could develop a prediction scheme for the deformation of the carriage. This finding can be applied to error budgeting for machine design stages.