Exploration of Energy Sources and DC Motor

Was trying to understand how things are built and wanted to learn about energy sources and how they work. This blog is just for my future reference to refer to the things I have learnt.

Learning about Torque

Have seen some video on social media of a coil spinning without any contact with anything.

Wanted to check and see if I can do that for doing the rotations or some mechanical actions considering this as a source.

So, my first question was how does this work. Learnt that it is nothing but an electro magnetic field. While I have magnets, is it possible that I can spin the coil that way to produce torque using the magnets as they have their own magnetic field.

Learnt that if I face same poles of magnets to face each other, the coil will rotate until the force is exerted and comes to stop.

A magnet has static magnetic field around it. Learnt that to spin the coil continuously, I had to change the magnetic field continuously. So, I tried checking for using different magnets to cover necessary circular area on left and right side facing with same poles towards each other where the in case the line of alignment of magnets changes and coil rotates and comes to stop, would it again pick up with another magnet same pole facing and keep spinning continuously the same way infinitely. Learnt that having many magnets with same poles facing each other would stop the coil at some point and doesn’t allow it to rotate at all.

So, to change the direction of magnetic field continuously, one would need an external source of energy. The commutant is the one which changes the direction of magnetic field. It is nothing but a copper ring broken into half with insulation in between segments, and brushes (carbon or some conductivity) attached to the commutant. The two terminals of the brushes are attached to the battery to produce torque or spin the coil.

Electricity

The electricity that is powered to our homes, we know that it comes from energy plants, where they get them from various sources of energy generating resources like coal, turbines, solar etc.

In particular, the coal which we have been using since a long time to generate electricity, I learnt that coal is all burnt to produce steam which in turn are used to power huge generators which produce electricity.

These generators have huge magnets, where the coil spins with the help of an energy source which changes the direction of the magnetic field continuously.

So, electricity is produced by changing the magnetic field continuously.

Learning about DC Motor

DC Motor creates torque, which produces mechanical activity.

External energy source -> Batteries or power voltage.

It has the following components:

-> External energy source -> Batteries or power voltage.

-> Magnets

-> Commutant

-> Brushes

-> Copper coil

-> Shaft rod

-> Ball bearings

Understand and build each of them

-> External energy source -> powers commutant which changes the magnetic field continuously -> which spins the coil and shaft.

-> Magnets -> 2 magnets to create the magnetic field.

-> Commutant -> a copper ring cut in half or into segment and combined together with insulation between them. Having more segment helps with smooth rotation and less friction.

-> Brushes -> Carbon -> can be graphite or some conductivity carbon which is attached to Commutant to power it using the terminals attached to external source: battery.

-> Copper coil -> It is coiled into many layers -> which creates torque.

-> Shaft rod -> connected to the coil which rotates along with it. Helps mechanical action -> could be attached to a rotating object.

-> Ball bearings -> They have an outer metal circle, metal steel balls and holder to keep them in place, inner metal circle, and side layers to cover the ball bearings. This helps to reduce friction between fixed parts and rotating parts.

Building a DC Motor

-> Copper coil is placed at the center of Commutant and brushes are connected to it with the brushes terminals connected to batteries or external energy source.

-> The shaft is passed through the coil inside the commutant, and ball bearings are attached to shaft.

-> The coiled copper wires that are present inside the DC motor -> alternative for magnets used and helps control torque.

Conclusion

DC Motor, shaft rod rotations could be controller by using gears, where the shaft rod could be attached to the gears and then gears to the axle.

The things listed here are something I learnt today and felt nice exploring.

Looking forward to learn and explore more.

Divya