An electric motor may comprise a rotor and a stator comprising rotor and stator teeth, respectively. A non-uniform angular spacing or grouping of rotor teeth may facilitate desired rotational speeds of the rotor.

A method for controlling switched reluctance machine (SRM) utilizing a SRM control system. The method allows for adaptive pulse positioning over a wide range of speeds and loads. An initial rotor position is provided for the SRM utilizing an initialization mechanism. A pinned point on a phase current waveform is defined during an initial current rise phase of the current waveform. A slope of the current rise is determined as the current waveform reaches the pinned point. The slope is then fed to the commutation module of the SRM control system. An error signal from calculated inductance or current slope is used as an input to a control loop in the SRM control system. The time determining module determines an optimum time signal to fire a next pulse. The optimum time signal is fed to the SRM for turning the plurality of SRM switches to on and off states.

An electric motor may comprise a rotor and a stator comprising rotor and stator teeth, respectively. A non-uniform angular spacing or grouping of rotor teeth may facilitate desired rotational speeds of the rotor.

The invention relates to a household appliance (1) comprising a movable first functional unit (10) for providing a first appliance function to a user, an electrical second functional unit (20) for providing a second appliance function to the user, and an operating device (11) for powering the first functional unit (10), comprising an electric motor (12), a connection (13) for supplying power to the electric motor (12), and a pre-circuit (30) connected between the connection (13) and the electric motor (12), wherein the pre-circuit (30) comprises a current limiting element (31) for limiting a current (200).

The invention also relates to a method (100) for operating a household appliance (1).

An electric motor may comprise a rotor and a stator comprising rotor and stator teeth, respectively. A non-uniform angular spacing or grouping of rotor teeth may facilitate desired rotational speeds of the rotor. In an embodiment, such non-uniform angular spacing may be such that for at least a subset of the rotor teeth comprising a first, second, and third rotor tooth, an angular spacing between the first and the second rotor teeth is at least twice an angular spacing between the second and the third rotor teeth.

A starter includes a three-phase switched reluctance electric motor including a rotor and a stator, a pinion gear, a power inverter that is connected to the stator, and a rotational position sensor. The rotor includes a quantity of rotor poles that is between 6 and 16, and the stator includes a quantity of stator poles that is between 8 and 24. An outer diameter of the electric motor is less than 85 mm. An active length of the motor is less than 50 mm. An airgap distance between the rotor and the stator is between 0.1 mm and 0.5 mm. A ratio between a rotor pole arc and a stator pole arc is at least 1.0:1. A ratio between a stator diameter and a rotor diameter is at least 2.0:1, and a ratio between a stator pole height and a rotor pole height is at least 2.5:1.

A multi-phase switched reluctance motor including a rotor and a stator, an electronic commutator subassembly, and a controller. The electronic commutator subassembly includes an electronic motor control unit, a power inverter, and a rotational position sensor, with the power inverter being electrically connected to the stator of the switched reluctance motor. The controller is in communication with the electronic motor control unit, the power inverter, and the rotational position sensor. The controller includes an instruction set that is executable to characterize operation of the switched reluctance motor, dynamically determine inductance of the switched reluctance motor based upon the characterized operation, and execute a closed-loop torque control routine to control the switched reluctance motor based upon the dynamically determined inductance of the switched reluctance motor. The closed-loop torque control routine dynamically determines torque output from the switched reluctance motor based upon the dynamically determined inductance.

A starter includes a three-phase switched reluctance electric motor including a rotor and a stator, a pinion gear, a power inverter that is connected to the stator, and a rotational position sensor. The rotor includes a quantity of rotor poles that is between 6 and 16, and the stator includes a quantity of stator poles that is between 8 and 24. An outer diameter of the electric motor is less than 85 mm. An active length of the motor is less than 50 mm. An airgap distance between the rotor and the stator is between 0.1 mm and 0.5 mm. A ratio between a rotor pole arc and a stator pole arc is at least 1.0:1. A ratio between a stator diameter and a rotor diameter is at least 2.0:1, and a ratio between a stator pole height and a rotor pole height is at least 2.5:1.

A method of controlling a switched reluctance motor is disclosed herein. The motor comprises a stator carrying a plurality of phase windings and a rotor. The method comprises activating the phase windings in a sequence selected to apply torque to the rotor, wherein during a cycle of rotation of the rotor the phase windings switch between an active state in which current in the phase winding applies torque to the rotor and an inactive state; applying a voltage to a selected phase winding whilst the selected phase winding is in the inactive state to provide a flux in the selected phase winding; determining the current in the selected phase winding; determining the rotor angle based on the current and the flux; and controlling said activating based on the rotor angle.

The embodiments herein provide a multitude of single-phase Switch Reluctance Motor (SRM) arranged in a suitable fashion in order to achieve uniform torque with complete material utilization. The embodiment herein also provides a series of single-phase Switch Reluctance Motor (SRM) arranged in appropriate manner for better utilization of material leading to better efficiencies, reduced cost, reduced size or weight and reduction in torque ripple and noise. In addition, the embodiments herein also provide a two-slice SRM system and method, which correspondingly resolves the starting problem.