Thesis (MScEng (Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering))--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Low Cost Automation (LCA) is of immense importance to industry, and even more so
for small scale industries. In implementing LCA determining cost effective and
efficient actuator alternatives present challenges for design engineers. Most often
decisions are experiential or entirely based on manufacturer recommendations.
Experience based decisions are most often biased with respect to the engineers’
knowledge. Similarly, manufacturer recommendations are restricted to their own
products and are as such also biased. Either way, sub-optimum drive alternatives may
sometimes be chosen. This demonstrates the need for making better informed decisions
based on more than experience and what is available for use.
This thesis reports the development of an electric actuator selection procedure and aid
for use in the early layout design phase. It provides readily accessible information on
technically viable actuator options. Experiential knowledge of experts in the field,
commercial information, as well as data obtained from experimentation was used in its
development. Being orientated towards LCA, the procedure has been targeted at the
application of electric motors and their associated control technologies but can be
extended to hydraulic, pneumatic and other actuators. In achieving a wider applicability
of the selection aid, a generic set of actuator properties descriptive of most actuators
was formulated.
An AC drives control evaluation was conducted for developing the selection procedure
and aid. It provided a means to validate some selection aid rules associated with
actuator controllability. Quantitative data on speed and positioning accuracies of
common AC three phase motors and their associated inverter technologies were the
targeted results of the experimentation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/1912 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Egbuna, C. Chukwudi |
| Contributors | Basson, A. H., University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
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