Design aspects and test results of a high speed bearingless drive

Following the trend towards smaller drives operating at increased speeds, the present work examines the suitability of bearingless drives for high speed operation. With rising rotational frequency, the requirements for the drive components differ significantly from a design specification for low speeds. Therefore, the design of the stator, rotor and winding system is described in detail. In order to verify the conducted analytical and FE calculations, a laboratory prototype was constructed reaching - to the knowledge of the authors - a world record speed for bearingless drives of 115.000rpm. Eventually, measurements showing specific losses and operational behavior of the drive are presented.