Energy Efficiency in Electromagnetic and Electro-Permanent Lifting Systems

In industrial settings, mechanical systems for clamping workpieces onto machine tools or for lifting and handling ferrous material are often replaced by magnetic clamping systems. For large lifting applications, the most suitable magnetic clamping systems are electromagnetic (EM) and electro-permanent (EP) approaches. Their configurations, direct and induced poles or direct poles only, need to be discussed in order to choose the most appropriate and economical setup for the specific application. In addition, an evaluation of the difference in the energy efficiency between EM and EP systems, which is often not simple, is presented. To achieve this, a hybrid control system for EM or EP systems was developed and, with the help of this prototype, an analysis of these two magnetic systems was carried out to highlight the main differences. The hybrid control system consists of a single control unit that can be used by both systems, and can be achieved by simply changing the type of lifting magnet. In this research, the realization, operational description, and analysis performed on this prototype were addressed.