E 2.1.1.

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Name: Class: Date: Teacher’s Note

1. Introduction
Direct current motors utilize the force exerted by a magnetic field on a current-carrying conductor loop to
produce rotary motion. A magnetic field is created in the fixed portion of the machine, referred to the exciting
field, whereas the armature winding forms the conductor loop. Rotary motion would normally come to an end
no later than when the exciting field and the armature field exhibit the same direction. However, a so-called
"commutator" (a.k.a. collector) is employed which reverses the polarity of the armature winding at this position
such that force continues to be exerted on the armature. If a DC machine is driven mechanically, then it acts
as a generator. In this situation, an alternating current is induced into the armature which is subsequently
rectified by the commutator. These machines require only very minor changes to their circuitry to affect a
change between motor and generator operation.
DC machines still have a solid position in drive technology to this day. In contrast to polyphase machines, they
are suitable for rotary speeds well over the 10 000 rpm range. Their performance range extends from under
one Watt to over ten Megawatt. In their operational behaviour, they differ primarily by the manner in which the
exciter winding is interconnected with respect to the armature winding. The armature and exciter windings are
arranged in parallel for shunt excitation whereas current is routed in series through the armature and exciter
windings for series excitation. If the exciter winding on a shunt wound machine is fed from a separate voltage
source, one refers to this as separate excitation. For another design type, the compound machine or DC
multifunction machine, there is both a shunt as well as a series winding present. Compounding is the
expression used for the technique of employing a series winding in combination with a shunt winding to attain
a stronger field. If the series winding portion is predominant, one speaks of over-compounding.
If a motor reduces its speed only slightly with increasing amounts of load, this behaviour is referred to as "shunt
characteristic". Shunt wound motors are well suited as drives for constant speed, for example in tool machines,
conveyors or rolling mills. "Series characteristic" is the expression used when there is a strong relationship
between speed and load torque. Series wound motors have very high locked-rotor torque but can also run
away to self-destruct at no-load. These are therefore better suited for applications in railroads, lift mechanisms
or as starters in vehicles. The compound-wound motor combines characteristics from shunt and series wound
motors. They are utilized where the locked-rotor torque of a shunt wound motor is insufficient, e.g. in lift
mechanisms. Series wound motors whose stators and rotors are laminated can also be operated on alternating
current. These are referred to as "universal motors". Because of their advantageous performance/weight ratio
these universal motors are often used in household appliances (e.g. power drills).
Speed adjustment can be affected for most design types with the help of a starter (in the armature circuit) as
well as with a field regulator (in the exciter circuit). Speed can be increased from standstill to nominal speed
by increasing armature voltage whereas speed can even be increased beyond its nominal value by attenuating
the excitation field.

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 E 2.1.1.3
Name: Class: Date: Teacher’s Note

2. Safety Precautions and Measurement Notifications

2.1 Safety Precautions
Attention should be given to the proper routing of cables related to an experiment when connecting these
machines. Cables should never have a chance to come into contact with rotating components! Machines are
to be positioned immediately adjacent to one another with their base plates securely bolted together.
Couplings and exposed shaft ends must be covered by the guards provided for this purpose so that no
accidental contact with rotating components is possible. Only the shaft end cover at the left machine side may
be temporarily removed when it is necessary to measure speed with a digital tachometer.
The machines are protected against overloading by a thermal switch (NC contact). The thermal switch is to be
placed in series with the appropriate input to the control unit for all experiments in which the machine test
system (773 1989) is used.
Voltage-free metal components (e.g. housings) are to be connected with a PE ground conductor according to
VDE regulations.
When a DC machine is removed from its power source then subsequently driven by the cradle dynamometer
it can go into generator operation, thus producing voltage which will continue to be present at its terminals!

2.2 Measurement Notifications

The connection of the test object is to be accomplished via the 300 W DC motor supply (725 852 D D). A
separate motor protection switch is not necessary. It suffices to set the DC motor supply's current limit to about
4 A.
For safe operation of all experiments employing the machine test system (773 1989), the power circuit breaker
module (745 561) is to be inserted into the path of the test object's supply voltage and the machine test system
is to be used in “dut nc” operational mode.
Voltage and current measurements are to be made with RMS meters (727 10). Simple voltmeters and
ammeters can also be used as an alternative. Notices about the proper measurement ranges are included in
the equipment lists for individual experiments. The unit configuration diagrams always show the RMS meters.
Small machines always exhibit a certain amount of manufacturing tolerance so that they can be produced
economically. This means that a motor may not necessarily develop its nominally rated power at the nominal
speed as specified by its rating plate. Tolerance related deviations within the limits of a permissible distribution
range are possible and acceptable!
In order to make experiments carried out with a particular machine applicable to other specimens of the same
type (which may have minor deviations in performance), results must be presented in a normalized form. The
values for current, voltage and speed which correspond to nominal power can be obtained while recording
characteristics. Subsequent graphic representations use these values as base reference values for normalized
presentation. This ensures that the typical course of curves resulting from the measurement of a particular
machine will also be representative of other machines of the same type, even though absolute result values
deviate from one another.
IEC standard 60034–1 sets forth the following allowable tolerances for the efficiency η of motors up to a power
rating of 50 kW:
Upward: no limit, downward: ∆η = - 0.15 ⋅ (1 - ηtheor )
Special tolerances apply to rotary speed depending on the machine's type, size and its speed range. This will
be treated in some detail in respective chapters.

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 E 2.1.1.3
Name: Class: Date: Teacher’s Note

It should be noted that these specifications are applicable to machines in their operationally warm states. It is
recommended that the test object be operated with nominal load for a period of at least ten minutes before
recording load characteristics. On the other hand, measurements to be made with high load torques should
be performed expeditiously so that the test object is not overloaded. The term P1 is used for electric input
power and P2 for output power to make a clear distinction between these two different machine values when
performing experiments.
The machine's electric input power is: P1 = V ⋅ I. Where V is the voltage and I is the total current drawn by the
machine.
For a rotating machine, the relationship between output power P2 and torque T is represented as follows:
P2 = M ⋅ ω,
where ω is the angular velocity.
The applicable units of measure are:
[P2 ] = 1 W, [T] = 1 Nm and [ω] = 1 s-1
Rotary speed n in revolutions is the customary unit of measure used in the field of electric machine engineering.
Applicable for this unit of measure is: [n] = rpm.
The relationship between rotary speed and angular velocity is:
n n
ω = 2π ⋅ or ω ≈
60 9,55
This yields the following unit equation for output power:
n
P2 = T ⋅
9,55
Rearranging this equation to solve for torque:
n
T = ⋅ P2
9,55
The above equations will be needed in the experiments to derive output power from measured torque and
speed values and vice versa.

P2
Efficiency is the ratio of output power to input power: η=
P1

A DC machine's windings are designated by capital letters selected from the beginning of the alphabet. The
following combinations are used in the machine types to be investigated here:
A1, A2 for the armature winding
C1, C2 for the compensation winding (compounding)
D1, D2 for the series winding
E1, E2 for the shunt winding
(F1, F2 for separate excitation).
For clockwise motor rotation, current flows in individual windings from the given lower to higher numbered
terminal (or consistently from the higher to lower numbered terminal). It is customary to reverse armature
current to change the direction of rotation. This retains residual magnetism in the exciter circuit's iron core.
Clockwise rotation for a machine means clockwise when looking at the drive side (the exposed shaft, which is
opposite to the side with the fan and commutator).

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