6V DC Motor

6V DC Motor

A 6V DC Motor is any of a class of rotary electrical motors that converts direct current electrical energy into mechanical energy. The most common types rely on the forces produced by magnetic fields. Nearly all types of DC motors have some internal mechanism, either electromechanical or electronic, to periodically change the direction of current in part of the motor.

6V DC Motors were the first form of motor widely used, as they could be powered from existing direct-current lighting power distribution systems. A 6V DC Motor’s speed can be controlled over a wide range, using either a variable supply voltage or by changing the strength of current in its field windings. Small 6V DC Motors are used in tools, toys, and appliances.

The universal motor can operate on direct current but is a lightweight brushed motor used for portable power tools and appliances. Larger DC motors are currently used in propulsion of electric vehicles, elevator and hoists, and in drives for steel rolling mills. The advent of power electronics has made replacement of 6V DC Motors with AC motors possible in many applications.

A coil of wire with a current running through it generates an electromagnetic field aligned with the center of the coil. The direction and magnitude of the magnetic field produced by the coil can be changed with the direction and magnitude of the current flowing through it.

A simple 6V DC Motor has a stationary set of magnets in the stator and an armature with one or more windings of insulated wire wrapped around a soft iron core that concentrates the magnetic field. The windings usually have multiple turns around the core, and in large motors there can be several parallel current paths.

The ends of the wire winding are connected to a commutator. The commutator allows each armature coil to be energized in turn and connects the rotating coils with the external power supply through brushes. (Brushless DC motors have electronics that switch the DC current to each coil on and off and have no brushes.)

The total amount of current sent to the coil, the coil’s size and what it’s wrapped around dictate the strength of the electromagnetic field created.

The sequence of turning a particular coil on or off dictates what direction the effective electromagnetic fields are pointed. By turning on and off coils in sequence a rotating magnetic field can be created.

These rotating magnetic fields interact with the magnetic fields of the magnets (permanent or electromagnets) in the stationary part of the motor (stator) to create a torque on the armature which causes it to rotate. In some 6V DC Motor designs the stator fields use electromagnets to create their magnetic fields which allow greater control over the motor.

At high power levels, 6V DC Motors are almost always cooled using forced air.

Different number of stator and armature fields as well as how they are connected provide different inherent speed/torque regulation characteristics. The speed of a DC motor can be controlled by changing the voltage applied to the armature. The introduction of variable resistance in the armature circuit or field circuit allowed speed control. Modern DC motors are often controlled by power electronics systems which adjust the voltage by “chopping” the DC current into on and off cycles which have an effective lower voltage.

Since the series-wound 6V DC Motor develops its highest torque at low speed, it is often used in traction applications such as electric locomotives, and trams. The 6V DC Motor was the mainstay of electric traction drives on both electric and diesel-electric locomotives, street-cars/trams and diesel electric drilling rigs for many years.

The introduction of 6V DC Motors and an electrical grid system to run machinery starting in the 1870s started a new second Industrial Revolution. 6V DC Motors can operate directly from rechargeable batteries, providing the motive power for the first electric vehicles and today’s hybrid cars and electric cars as well as driving a host of cordless tools.

Today 6V DC Motors are still found in applications as small as toys and disk drives, or in large sizes to operate steel rolling mills and paper machines. Large DC motors with separately excited fields were generally used with winder drives for mine hoists, for high torque as well as smooth speed control using thyristor drives. These are now replaced with large AC motors with variable frequency drives.

If external mechanical power is applied to a 6V DC Motor it acts as a DC generator, a dynamo. This feature is used to slow down and recharge batteries on hybrid and electric cars or to return electricity back to the electric grid used on a street car or electric powered train line when they slow down. This process is called regenerative braking on hybrid and electric cars. In diesel electric locomotives they also use their 6V DC Motors as generators to slow down but dissipate the energy in resistor stacks. Newer designs are adding large battery packs to recapture some of this energy.

The brushed DC electric motor generates torque directly from DC power supplied to the motor by using internal commutation, stationary magnets (permanent or electromagnets), and rotating electromagnets.

Advantages of a brushed DC motor include low initial cost, high reliability, and simple control of motor speed. Disadvantages are high maintenance and low life-span for high intensity uses.

Maintenance involves regularly replacing the carbon brushes and springs which carry the electric current, as well as cleaning or replacing the commutator. These components are necessary for transferring electrical power from outside the motor to the spinning wire windings of the rotor inside the motor.

Brushes are usually made of graphite or carbon, sometimes with added dispersed copper to improve conductivity. In use, the soft brush material wears to fit the diameter of the commutator, and continues to wear. A brush holder has a spring to maintain pressure on the brush as it shortens. For brushes intended to carry more than an ampere or two, a flying lead will be molded into the brush and connected to the motor terminals.

Very small brushes may rely on sliding contact with a metal brush holder to carry current into the brush, or may rely on a contact spring pressing on the end of the brush. The brushes in very small, short-lived motors, such as are used in toys, may be made of a folded strip of metal that contacts the commutator.

A series 6V DC Motor connects the armature and field windings in series with a common D.C. power source. The motor speed varies as a non-linear function of load torque and armature current; current is common to both the stator and rotor yielding current squared (I^2) behavior.

A series motor has very high starting torque and is commonly used for starting high inertia loads, such as trains, elevators or hoists. This speed/torque characteristic is useful in applications such as dragline excavators, where the digging tool moves rapidly when unloaded but slowly when carrying a heavy load.

A series motor should never be started at no load. With no mechanical load on the series motor, the current is low, the counter-Electro motive force produced by the field winding is weak, and so the armature must turn faster to produce sufficient counter-EMF to balance the supply voltage. The motor can be damaged by overspeed. This is called a runaway condition.

Series motors called universal motors can be used on alternating current. Since the armature voltage and the field direction reverse at the same time, torque continues to be produced in the same direction.

However they run at a lower speed with lower torque on AC supply when compared to DC due to reactance voltage drop in AC which is not present in DC. Since the speed is not related to the line frequency, universal motors can develop higher-than-synchronous speeds, making them lighter than induction motors of the same rated mechanical output.

This is a valuable characteristic for hand-held power tools. Universal motors for commercial utility are usually of small capacity, not more than about 1 kW output. However, much larger universal motors were used for electric locomotives, fed by special low-frequency traction power networks to avoid problems with commutation under heavy and varying loads.

A shunt 6V DC Motor connects the armature and field windings in parallel or shunt with a common D.C. power source. This type of motor has good speed regulation even as the load varies, but does not have the starting torque of a series DC motor. It is typically used for industrial, adjustable speed applications, such as machine tools, winding/unwinding machines and tensioners.

A compound 6V DC Motor connects the armature and fields windings in a shunt and a series combination to give it characteristics of both a shunt and a series DC motor. This motor is used when both a high starting torque and good speed regulation is needed.

The motor can be connected in two arrangements: cumulatively or differentially. Cumulative compound motors connect the series field to aid the shunt field, which provides higher starting torque but less speed regulation. Differential compound DC motors have good speed regulation and are typically operated at constant speed.

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