A new structure of universal motor using soft magnetic composites

The universal or ac commutator motor, widely used in hand tools and domestic appliances generally uses a two-pole stator with a concentrated winding and an armature with interlocked coils elements. The copper volume and the axial length of the end windings of such conventional structures are then usually very important. In this paper, the authors present a new universal motor structure based on an efficient use of the isotropic magnetic properties of the soft magnetic composites and on the concentrated winding technique. The stator core presents a claw-pole structure and the armature has a concentrated winding with several coils wound around the same tooth. With this new ac commutator motor structure, a reduction of the total volume by a ratio equal to 200% is obtained when compared to a classical universal motor structure with nearly identical performance.