Electrical Machines
About 1 min read
Electrical machines (also known as electric machines) are devices that convert mechanical energy and electrical energy. An electrical generator converts mechanical energy to electrical energy.
An electric motor converts electrical energy to mechanical energy. An alternating current (AC) transformer changes the level of AC voltage and is considered by some also as an electrical machine.
Questions you may have include:
- How does an electric generator work?
- How does an electric motor work?
- How does an AC transformer work?
This lesson will answer those questions.
Electric generator
The way an electrical generator works is that mechanical energy turns the shaft going into the generator. The rotation moves electrical wires past permanent magnets, thus creating an electrical current in the wires. The current may be alternating current (AC) or direct current (DC), depending on the configuration of the commutators on the shaft.
Electric motor
An electric motor is basically a generator in reverse. Electrical current is fed into the motor wires, which are wrapped around an iron core, thus creating an electromagnet. The magnetic field then repels the permanent magnet around the core, thus causing the shaft to rotate.
An electric motor can be an AC motor or DC motor, depending on the commutator configuration.
AC transformer
An AC transformer consists of an iron containing two wrappings of insulated wire. The input voltage is converted to an output voltage, according to the ratio of the number of turns of the wire.
AC voltage can be increased or decreased according to the the ratio of the turns of wire.
There is debate as to whether an AC transformer is really an electrical machine since there is no resulting motion.
Summary
Electrical machines or electric machines are devices that convert mechanical and electrical energy. An electrical generator converts mechanical energy to electrical energy. An electric motor converts electrical energy to mechanical energy. An alternating current (AC) transformer changes the level of AC voltage and is considered by some also as an electrical machine.
Always do your best
Resources and references
Websites
Electrical machine – Wikipedia
Electric machine – Wikipedia
Electromechanics – Wikipedia
Questions and comments
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