High Thrust, Integrated Roller-Screw Actuator Using High Performance Notched-Ribbon Motor Technology

The Navy is seeking a high thrust, electric linear actuation technology capable of replacing the hydraulic actuators currently used aboard Navy ships. Of particular interest are devices suitable for the aircraft carrier weapons flight deck hatch and jet blast deflector. Proposed for this is a design based on a high-thrust roller-screw integrated with an innovative, high-torque motor. This motor technology is based on a dual-airgap, axial-flux, permanent-magnet machine topology and utilizes a unique notched-ribbon wave winding and flux-focused magnet arrays. The high performance provided by this design is expected to result in a high thrust electric actuator of comparable size, shape, and performance to current hydraulic technologies. The goal of this Phase I effort is to establish the feasiblity of the proposed design for Navy shipboard applications by developing a preliminary design of this concept and comparing predicted performance and physical attributes to an established set of metrics (success critera).