Active magnetic bearing with integrated detectors

1. An active magnetic bearing with radial magnetic flux for a rotary machine presenting an axis of rotation OO′,the magnetic bearing comprising a stator fitted with electromagnet windings and with a first stack of ferromagnetic laminations extending essentially perpendicularly to the axis OO′, a rotor fitted with a second stack of ferromagnetic laminations extending essentially perpendicularly to the axis of rotation OO′, servo-control circuits for maintaining the rotor in equilibrium without contact with the stator, and at least one detector for detecting the radial position of the rotor and at least one detector for detecting the axial position of the rotor, which radial and axial position detectors deliver signals to said servo-control circuits, and the currents carried by the electromagnets of the stator are servo-controlled on the basis of said currents; wherein the first stack of ferromagnetic laminations of the stator comprises in succession in the axial direction: at least a first sub-set of laminations presenting first notches housing electromagnet windings of the stator; a second sub-set of laminations presenting both first notches housing electromagnet windings of the stator and second notches housing a radial detector; and a third sub-set of laminations presenting first notches housing electromagnet windings of the stator; and in that the first stack of ferromagnetic laminations of the stator further comprises, at its ends, fourth and fifth sub-sets of laminations presenting the same notches as each other and housing respective first and second axial detectors.

2. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein the detection point at which the position of the rotor is detected by the position detectors coincides with the point of reaction of the active magnetic bearing.

3. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein the second stack of laminations of the rotor extends over an axial length that is slightly longer than the length of the first stack of laminations of the stator.

4. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein the rotor includes respective solid non-magnetic rings situated at each end of the second stack of laminations of the rotor.

5. A magnetic bearing according to claim 4 , wherein the non-magnetic rings are made of steel, bronze, or aluminum.

6. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein each axial or radial position detector comprises a plurality of detector elements.

7. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein each axial or radial position detector comprises four detector elements.

8. A magnetic bearing according to claim 6 , wherein the detector elements are inductive type windings.

9. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein the rotor includes respective solid non-magnetic rings situated at each end of the second stack of laminations of the rotor, and further wherein departures from parallelism of the planes between the laminations of the second stack of laminations and the non-magnetic rings are averaged by connecting the detector elements of each axial detector series.

10. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein axial position detection is defined at the same location as radial detection.

11. A magnetic bearing according to claim 10 , wherein the detector elements of one axial detector are connected in a bridge circuit with the detector elements of the other axial detector.

12. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein the frequency f d of the oscillator exciting the detectors is decoupled from the frequency f p of the current fed to the electromagnets of the magnetic bearing.

13. A magnetic bearing according to claim 12 , wherein the decoupling is performed by synchronizing the detector excitation frequency f d and the feed frequency f p of the electromagnets of the magnetic bearing in a ratio of 1 to 2, such that f d =f p /2.

14. A magnetic bearing according to claim 12 , wherein the decoupling is performed by feeding the magnetic bearings through filters.

15. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein the thickness of the laminations of the second stack of laminations lies in the range 0.1 mm to 0.2 mm.

16. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein the active magnetic bearing is of the radial type.

17. A magnetic bearing according to claim 1 , wherein the active magnetic bearing is of the conical type having radial and axial action.