Design and Analysis of a Claw Pole Permanent Magnet Motor With Molded Soft Magnetic Composite Core

Soft magnetic composite (SMC) materials and SMC electromagnetic devices have undergone substantial development in the past decade. Much work has been conducted on designing and prototyping various types of electrical machine. However, the iron cores were often made by cutting existing SMC preforms that were formed by compacting SMC powder in simple cylinder or bar-shape molds, and the magnetic properties of the cores may deteriorate significantly during the cutting process. To investigate "industry production-ready" products, this paper presents the design and analysis of a claw-pole permanent magnet (PM) motor with a molded SMC core of low mass density to replace the existing induction motor in a dishwasher pump. The magnetic properties of the molded SMC core are measured and utilized in the motor design and analysis. Finite element analysis (FEA) of magnetic field is carried out to accurately determine key motor parameters, and an improved phase variable model is applied to predict the motor performance. Both parameter computation and performance prediction are validated by the experimental results on the prototype.