What are the trends in brushless motors?

Brushless DC motors have no brushes or commutators, hence their name. It consists of a motor body and a drive, and is a typical mechatronic product.
 

As a "newcomer" to the motor industry, brushless DC motors have not had a long history in China and are more expensive than brushed motors, but because of their obvious advantages, they are developing rapidly. After entering China, they were quickly favoured by industries such as home appliances, automobiles, ships and machinery, and have taken their place in various industries, developing rapidly.

 

Why do brushless motors occupy a place? The low price is undoubtedly the focus of the industry's attack on brushless motors, so why has it managed to occupy a place in the motor market for a short time? In fact, this is similar to Apple, as long as the use of the effect and quality can be guaranteed to attract loyal consumers. For example, Apple's electronic products are now more expensive than the average, but the market is still hot, it is clear that when quality and price can only choose one or the other, consumers with purchasing power will still give priority to the effectiveness of use.

What's so great about brushless motors? What is it about brushless motors that makes them so attractive to loyal consumers? Firstly, brushless motors have a smaller geometry and are lighter, meeting the market demand for lighter weight, better performing products by design.

 

Secondly, due to the use of permanent magnets, there are no core losses in the rotor, so brushless motors are more efficient, while the use of permanent magnets also reduces motor maintenance and extends the life of the motor.

Thirdly, brushless motors operate in a self-controlled manner and do not oscillate or lose steps during sudden changes in load. By using suitable transformation algorithms, thermal performance can be improved, better motor speed ranges and response times can be achieved, better electromagnetic isolation is possible and torque response is better.
 

In summary: small size, light weight, long life, high efficiency, low noise, low vibration, no sparks, high reliability, good stability, adaptability, simple maintenance and servicing. With their excellent performance, brushless DC motors are rapidly attracting the attention of manufacturers of "small, light and thin" audio-visual products, silent home appliances and luxury cars. As a result, countries have accelerated the development of brushless motors and their efforts to capture the market. Many Japanese companies have successfully applied brushless DC motors to digital cameras, micro recorders, camcorders, printers, storage movers, mobile phones, as well as automotive air conditioners, hoovers, electric vehicles, heart pumps and other fields.

Brushless DC motors are now able to fully replace DC motors for speed control,  inverter motors for speed control and asynchronous motors  gearboxes for speed control.
 

The brushless DC motor has all the advantages of a traditional DC motor, while eliminating the carbon brush and slip ring structure, and has excellent torque characteristics. Good torque performance at medium and low speeds, high starting torque and low starting current, stepless speed regulation, wide range of speed regulation and high overload capacity. The life span of a conventional brush motor is about 10,000 hours, while the life span of a brushless DC motor is several times longer.


 

In addition to this, because the brushless motor itself no excitation and carbon brush loss, eliminating the loss of multi-stage deceleration, comprehensive power saving rate of up to 20% ~ 60%, so the price difference with the ordinary motor just rely on power saving a year to recover the purchase cost, plus in recent years the government has been advocating energy saving and environmental protection, brushless motor can be said to be the trend of motor development.
 

I believe that in time, the price will not be and become a stumbling block to prevent brushless motors to occupy the motor market. In the foreseeable future, brushless motors will be completely eliminated brush motors, motor products will enter the "brushless era".