Creating a New Market: Testing and Promoting the Copper Motor Rotor At the Annual Spring Meeting of the Copper Development Association in June, industry expert, Darryl Van Son, presented some impressive data which points to the breadth of this potential market: Motors use 2 trillion kWh per year; Two-thirds of all electricity used by industry is expended running motors; Just 1 percent increased motor efficiency would save 20 billion kWh per year – the equivalent to $1.4 billion at 7 cents per kWh. Mr. Van Son also outlined the test results achieved by the copper motor rotor project team. The team is comprised of: Dr. John Cowie, CDA; Dr. Edwin Brush, BBF & Associates; John Mollet, ICA; Dr. Stephen Midson, Formcast; Jay Keist, Formcast; Ruedi Beck, DieTech; Darryl Van Son, Van Son & Associates; and Dr. Dale Peters, consultant to CDA. In a direct copper-to-aluminum comparison, seven rotors were tested in the same stator and on the same dynamometer. Test results were compared to a large database of previous motor tests that used aluminum rotors. The aluminum motor rotor data were simply averaged to provide a reference “standard” motor. The following paragraphs outline the results of the team’s testing efforts. Each run measured iron core loss, stator resistance, rotor resistance, windage and friction, and stray load losses. These terms are defined: Iron core loss – magnetic losses in lamination stack, inductance and eddy current losses. Stator resistance – current losses in windings. Rotor resistance – current losses in rotor bars and end rings. Windage and friction – mechanical drag in bearings and cooling fans. Stray load losses – magnetic transfer loss in the air-gap between rotor and stator. 1 2 3 >>

Update: Copper Motor Rotor is published monthly by the Copper Development Association Inc. to provide current information of interest to those in the electric motor and related industries. CDA assumes no responsibility or liability in connection with this publication and makes no warranties of any kind with respect to the information contained herein.