Design and Experiments of Linear Electromagnetic Actuators

This study presents the design, fabrication and evaluation of three linear electromagnetic actuators (LEAs), namely solenoid actuator (SA), moving coil actuator (MCA), and moving magnet actuator (MMA), for actuating a jet dispenser of a dispensing system. Three simplified 2D models of SA, MCA, and MMA are built and modified by the finite element method (FEM) to generate better models with a higher thrust force value. The FEM-based optimal dimensions of SA, MCA, and MMA models are used to fabricate three actuator prototypes. The fluid dots’ size produced by the LEAs jet dispensers is empirically investigated under various conditions of backpressure, operating frequency, needle displacement, and fluid temperature. Based on experimental results, proposed MMA and MCA can be considered to replace SA and are potential actuators to be applied for driving the jet dispenser.