Magnetic Bearings Making Cleaner Technology More Attractive

IndustryWeek (Dr. Victor Iannello, CEO Synchrony Inc.) - New 'frictionless' technologies are making industrial equipment such as compressors, turbines, and motors more affordable, efficient and environmentally-friendly.

Historically, the larger size and complexity of magnetic bearings has made them difficult to integrate into a rotating machine, limiting the range of applications. The cost of magnetic bearings system has also been a limitation. But recently, a new generation of magnetic bearings has emerged using design innovations that benefit from technology advances in the fields of digital processing and power electronics. The magnetic bearings allows the elimination of "old technology parts" such as oil reservoirs, pipes, heat exchangers, filters, and gears, and replaces them with "new technology parts" such as electromagnets, digital processors, sensors and communication networks.