www.easa.

com July 2001

Two Variations Of Form-Wound Coils

By Cyndi Nyberg wound.” This type of
EASA Technical Support Specialist coil is normally used
when there is a high
It is very important to take accurate data number of turns per
when you rewind a form-wound motor or gen- coil. Instead of using a
erator, especially if the coils will be made by an wire that is the width of
outside coil manufacturer. There are a couple of the slot and very thin, a
variations to the standard coil design that are thicker wire that is half
not common, but that you may come across the width is used and is
from time to time. staggered in the slot.
Figure 2 shows a com-
Brick-type Design parison of the standard coil and the terrace
A brick-type winding uses two different wound coil.
sizes of wire arranged as shown in Figure 1. When you’re taking data on terrace wound
Rather than use one large rectangular wire for coils, it’s easy to miss the number of turns and the
wires in hand. Normally, when you see a coil

Insulated It is very important to take

wire accurate data when you
rewind a form-wound
motor or generator, espe-
cially if the coils will be
made by an outside coil
Bare
manufacturer. There are a
wire
couple of variations to the
standard coil design that
are not common, but that
Figure 1. Cross-section of one turn in a you may come across from
brick winding. time to time.

each turn, this example uses four smaller

wires. When more than one conductor is used,
each individual conductor must be insulated.
However, it is not necessary to insulate every
wire to achieve the required separation.
There are two different wire sizes used in
the coils of Figure 1. The large wires are insu-
lated (glass, film, mica, glass-over-film, etc.)
and the smaller ones are bare copper, with the
same total height as the insulated wire. The
reason for this configuration is to reduce eddy
current losses within each turn of the coil.
This type of winding can increase efficiency
and cooling, based on the design requirements.
Each strand of wire is separated by the insula-
tion, and the bare copper wire maximizes the
copper content in the slots.
Terrace Design
A second type of coil is called “terrace

1
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Two Variations Of Form-Wound Coils . . . Continued From Page 5

with two vertical columns, you assume that used is because the thicker wires are easier to
there are two wires in hand, with the number work with than a very thin wire. The draw-
of turns equal to the number of conductors in back is that the volts per turn (V/T) are higher
the “stack.” between some of the
The way to tell turns in the terrace
that the coil is ter- wound coil. For ex-
race wound and ample, in Figure 2,
has only one wire 6
5 6 between turns 1 and
in hand is to look 5
4 4, the V/T is equal to
at the coil lead 4 3 the sum of the V/T
and confirm that 3
between 1&2, 2&3,
there is only one 2
Turns 1 2 Turns and 3&4.
wire in hand. If 1
Unfortunately,
you routinely cal- Slot Slot most of these designs
culate the flux a) Standard b) Terrace use a 1-circuit con-
densities for your nection. If the
designs, the incor- Figure 2. Cross-section of a standard and connection had 2-cir-
rect data will have terrace wound coil. cuits originally, a
double the densi- new coil with the in-
ties, and double correct data could be
the circular mils per amp that you would nor- changed to a one circuit connection. But if
mally expect. the connection was only 1-circuit, new coils
One reason that the terrace wound coils are would be needed.