Magnetically levitated systems (such as active/passive magnetic bearings or bearingless/self-bearing motors) feature numerous advantages, such as high-speed capability, extended life-time, elimination of lubrication and ultra-pure operation. This lecture gives on overview of the research that has been conducted at the Johannes Kepler University (JKU) Linz related to this field.

The research group is active since over 20 years and has contributed to several different topics. The main focus is and was always laid on bearingless/self-bearing drives but also active and passive magnetic bearing projects have been implemented. Several bearingless/self-bearing slice motor topologies (like the PM segment motor, the PM high-speed motor, the PM biased reluctance motor, the PM flux-switching motor or PM vernier motor) are introduced and discussed in this talk.

Additionally, also other systems implementing passive ring bearings (like the bearingless axial force/torque motor) and active magnetic bearings with PM bias flux (implemented e. g. in a bearingless fan) are shown.