AC Motors are Reason Enough to Be Grateful about Technology
The world of today is one largely based on technological innovations. There have always been scientists and inventors who fascinated or scared people with their creations, but no one could have imagined the world would advance on such a large scale. We have to be grateful for all these masterminds who didn’t let anything stop them from having their ideas get from imagination to actual realisation. If not for them, we wouldn’t have simplified lifestyles today, making use of electronics and appliances on a daily basis, having the ability to be active at night same as during daylight, to chat with people no matter how distant they may be, pay bills and shop online.
A well known name in the world of innovations is Michael Faraday, famous for his electromagnetic discoveries. He developed the idea of electric fields and how magnets and currents were related, uncovering the way currents affected magnets and vice versa. It’s these ideas that brought to the creation of electric motors. Perhaps the most widely used motors that we aren’t even aware we have all around us are the AC electric motors. As we can guess from their name, this kind of motors run on alternating current and the role of the motor is to convert the electrical energy into mechanical. All this is possible also thanks to the use of rotating magnetic fields which are aided by the alternating current in the coils – once electricity gets to the coils, the magnetic field is created and it’s then that rotation happens.
When looking for AC electric motors, you’ll come across induction and synchronous, differing in their rotor design. Induction, or asynchronous, electric motors work on the principle of electromagnetic induction as the rotating power. What’s typical for this type of motors is the speed of their rotor, turning slower than that of the rotating magnetic field. Unlike them, the synchronous motors’ rotors turn at the same rate as magnetic field. Because of their widespread usage, they are more than a worthy investment to make as they prove to be cost-effective too, even more than DC motors. You might have heard of an AC motor phase but don’t know what it means; the phase represents the number of all the electric currents that send energy to separate coils, and the more coils there are, the better the motor run.
Because of the durability, low maintenance and costs, the AC motors are used in both home and industrial applications. They are the moving force behind a well-functioning clock, fan, disk drive as well as in appliances such as washing machines. In the industry they are present in compressors, blowers and pumps. Though they don’t require much maintenance, it’s advisable to check for overheating, smell and input voltage, making sure it’s connected properly. Frequent checkups ensure there is no damage.