Electric motor and handwheel actuator assembly incoporating a motor

An electric motor comprising a stator and a rotor, the stator carrying a plurality of phase windings and the rotor carrying a plurality of magnet poles and being connected to a shaft;

• and
• in which the stator comprises a yoke having a plurality of teeth, each tooth comprising a stem and a tooth tip that is located at the end of the stem closest to the rotor, whereby the region of the motor in which the tooth tips and the magnets directly face one another defines a cylindrical active magnetic region that bounds the magnetic flux that passes radially between the magnets of the rotor and the tips of the teeth of the stator,
• and further comprising a sleeve of electrically conductive material that is located between the inwardly facing tips of the stator teeth and the rotor the sleeve providing a flux path that extends axially along the motor bore so that rotation of the rotor generates eddy currents within the sleeve that resist rotor rotation,
• further in which the conductive sleeve has an axial length that is longer than the axial length of the active magnetic region and is positioned such that at least one end of the sleeve protrudes axially beyond the adjacent axial end of the active magnetic region.