Flexible Rotor Sequentially Actuated Motor/Generator

An electromagnetic stator having a working surface that employs a ring-of-actuators stator structure for a flexible rotor, said stator having windings and comprising a three-sided channel into which are placed magnetic actuators containing soft iron or other magnetically permeable laminates, wherein said stator actuators are each capable of independently creating magnetic poles with the force needed to attract and bring the flexible rotor into solid contact with the working surface of the stator;

• the ring-of-actuators stator structure configured wherein:
• (1) said structure completely surrounds the stator windings with magnetic iron so that electric current flowing in every part of the windings contributes to production of the magnetic forces that move the rotor forward and/or produce electrical output, (2) the magnetic flux paths are very short so as to minimize magnetic reluctance losses, (3) the structure of the actuators creates three-dimensional flux paths that flow in planes both transverse and parallel to the direction of motor rotation to provide paths for magnetic forces to attract the rotor to the stator, and (4) permeable magnetic material is placed between actuators to provide a magnetic link between actuators, said magnetic link being used to move magnetic fields smoothly forward from one actuator to the next;
• each said actuator is comprised of a winding having a plurality of sides, including a working side that faces the rotor and magnetically-permeable material that surrounds the winding on all sides except the working side;
• and
• all said actuators are placed into a toroidal support structure at equally-spaced intervals so that each actuator forms a part of the working surface of the stator;
• and the flexible rotor acts as an armature that is pulled toward an actuator when it is activated, said rotor then acting a continuous armature for said ring-of-actuators stator.

A process for quickly injecting electrical current into sequential actuator winding sets of a ring-of-actuators stator when using a flexible rotor to shorten the length of time required to inject high levels of electrical current into sequential actuator windings so that high levels of torque output can be maintained as motor speed increases;

• and to conserve the magnetic field energy stored in active actuators when those actuators are turned off, comprising:
• wrapping the rotor into a position where it creates a common flux path linkage between neighboring actuators and in this position providing a temporary transformer-like mechanism by which one actuator winding can be used to induce current in its neighboring actuator winding;
• creating said path linkages between sets of actuator windings via its multiple regions of contact with the stator when the rotor is wrapped into a position where each region of rotor stator contact is centered between an actuator belonging to the current set of active actuators and the neighboring actuator that is a member of the next set of actuators to be turned on;
• in said position centering the multiple regions of rotor-stator contact on and in full contact with the magnetically permeable material placed between neighboring actuator windings;
• establishing flux paths when said multiple contact regions of the rotor are in said position that flow from the center poles of neighboring actuator windings into and through the rotor to the magnetically permeable material positioned between these neighboring actuator windings, and then through this between-actuator permeable material back under the windings to the center poles of each actuator, such that the permeable material located between these neighboring pairs of actuators provide a common flux path linking the magnetic fields of these neighboring actuators;
• creating a temporary transformer-like linkage of said common flux paths between these pairs of neighboring actuator windings wherein said transformer-like linkage follows the rule that the amount of magnetic flux flowing through this common flux path equal so the sum of the flux produced by electrical current flowing in each of the neighboring actuator windings, and when current decreases in one winding it increases in the other to maintain the same amount of flux flowing through the common flux path, and the number of winding turns for each actuator being identical so when the current flowing through one actuator winding decreases, then the current in the paired actuator winding must increase in equal amount, whereby when the amount of electrical current flowing in one actuator winding of an actuator pair is reduced to zero by turning off that actuator, then current in the other actuator winding of that pair must increase by an equal amount, effectively forwarding current from one actuator to the next;
• using said temporary transformer-like linkage and said current forwarding to conserve and maintain the magnetic field energy of the actuator being turned off so that the energy put into the magnetic field by that actuator is not lost, but instead is shifted forward along the stator surface to produce magnetic forces of attraction at a new location, and since very little time is required to move the existing magnetic field forward to the neighboring actuator, then motor torque output can be maintained over a larger motor speed increase because the actuators can be turned on and off at a far faster rate;
• once using the transformer-like linkage induces electrical current in its paired actuator winding, sustaining current via connection of that actuator winding to a power source by determining the exact location of the rotor, connecting power to the next set of actuators in sequence when rotor regions of contact with the stator are centered over the active actuators so as to roll the rotor forward and into contact with the magnetic material midway between the active set of actuators and the next set of actuators in sequence, and turning off the currently active set of actuators when regions of the rotor come into contact with the magnetic material midway between the currently active actuators and the next actuators in sequence and in so doing transfer current immediately from the actuators being turned off into the next set of actuators in sequence being turned on.