Design and construction of a small linear induction motor

The work described here includes the design, construction and testing of a three-phase, 208 volt, 60 Hz small linear induction motor. This motor was designed to have a synchronous speed of 30 feet per second. It developed a running thrust of five pounds at a speed of about 18 feet per second. The current under these conditions was 5.4 amperes. It was apparent that the performance characteristics would be improved considerably if a thicker secondary sheet could have been used. This was impossible, however, for the configuration used here. The experiments were carried out in order to become familiar with the characteristic behavior of a linear induction motor and verify some of the peculiarities which have been described in the literature.