History of machine-engine development. Development of industrial electric drive

As the development and sophistication of production equipment and the need for fragmentation of mechanical energy, the steam engine increasingly ceased to be a universal engine. Its functions gradually and in ever increasing volume pass to other, more perfect and more efficient engine-engines. The steam turbine becomes the engine of power generators and large marine vessels, diesel engine - engine of locomotives, ships, tractors, excavators; In cars and airplanes, an easy and economical gasoline engine is installed.

In numerous working and technological machines, the electric motor becomes the main thing.

The use of the electric drive in the industry instead of steam engines made it possible to concentrate the production of electric power at large electric stations, which led to a significant simplification of the industrial power supply system and its considerable reduction in price.

The electric drive provided wide development of various types of metal working machines, lifting machines, elevators, conveyors, motor cars, loading and unloading machines and many other types of production equipment.

History of machine-engine development. Development of industrial electric drive

In the 80-90s the main electric motor used in the industry was a DC motor.

The main field of application of the DC electric drive was large machine units such as rolling mills, mine hoisting machines and some other types of equipment.

With the further development of electrical engineering, which made it possible to create an economically advantageous and technically uncomplicated three-phase current system, wide possibilities were opened for the use in industrial production of AC induction motors.

Three-phase motors could be widely used in metal cutting machines, in mining, construction and textile machines, in conveyors, pumps, fans, etc.

The simplicity of the design of the induction motor, especially with a short-circuited rotor, made it possible to install hundreds and thousands of such engines in the shop or at the plant.

Asynchronous motors, reliable in operation, could be made hermetically sealed, and, consequently, they could be used in the most difficult conditions: with high humidity, in an atmosphere of gasoline vapors, various gases, etc.

Asynchronous motors without damages endure significant short-time overloads. By the end of the 1990s, the electric machine-building plants of various countries had already produced asynchronous motors in large quantities and in a wide range of capacities.

The introduction of the electric drive played a revolutionary role in industrial production. First, electric motors were installed to drive individual machines and machines of high power. Then in the shops of enterprises began to replace the steam engine, which performed the functions of the central drive, an electric motor. This created a group electric drive with numerous transmissions in the workshop. This inevitably created an increased danger in the workplace and caused severe working conditions.

Transmission gears were a system of main and camshafts with pulleys attached to them, from which the movement with the help of belts was transferred to the pulleys of machine tools. The whole system received rotation from a powerful central engine located in the shop or outside the shop.

In the future, in connection with the continuous increase in the number of working machines driven from one engine, the energy of the central propulsion system was started to be dispersed into several engines located in the workshop building. The single transmission was divided into sections that served individual groups; Such a group transmission made it possible to control the machines with greater flexibility and reliability. A typical example of a group electric drive can serve as one of the shops of the Sestroretsk Arms Factory, where in 1911 all metal-cutting machines were combined into groups, each of which was intended for one type of work and driven by a common electric motor through a single shaft.

Frontal lathe with a drive from an electric motor (France, end of XIX century).

Frontal lathe with a drive from an electric motor (France, end of XIX century).

The improvement of industrial electric motors has made it expedient to use a single, or individual, electric drive to drive machines. Such a drive, connected to only one machine, liberates the shops of industrial enterprises from numerous transmissions, reduces idling of machines, greatly reduces unproductive energy losses.

Individual electric drive allows each individual actuator to operate at the most favorable speeds; It makes it possible to significantly accelerate the processes of starting and changing the direction of rotation.

Evolution of radial-drilling machines at various stages of the electric drive development

Evolution of radial-drilling machines at various stages of the electric drive development a - group drive with transmission gears; B, e, d - individual drive with different design layout; D - multi-motor drive

Individual electric drive significantly affected the design of the working machines themselves. The merging of the drive motor with the actuator was sometimes so close that they were constructively a single whole.

The most harmonious constructive connection between the drive and the machine was carried out using flanged motors, which were manufactured in horizontal and vertical versions and could be directly connected to machine mechanisms without intermediate belt drives.

Flanged motors have been used primarily for driving high-speed spindles of drilling, boring, grinding, polishing and woodworking machines.

Efficient was the use as an individual drive of built-in electric motors and especially engines with variable speed (adjustable drive). With electrical or electromechanical speed control, the possibilities for a significant simplification of the kinematic scheme of metal cutting machines are created.

In the early XX century. The advantages of using an individual electric drive in various industries, especially in machine building, have been proven. Such drive on the basis of a three-phase current has received wide application in the industry. This was facilitated by the fact that electric machine-building enterprises mastered the production of large series of asynchronous motors of relatively small capacity, intended for machine tools, as well as for weaving, spinning, printing, woodworking and other machines. Three-phase electric motors very quickly began to penetrate not only mechanical, but also cement and brick factories, textile and paper mills, mines and mines.

The development of an individual electric drive for working machines led to an even more perfect system - a multi-motor drive. In this case, not only the machine itself, but each executive mechanism of a single machine is set in motion by a separate electric motor.

For example, in a machine tool, one motor drives the spindle, the other provides the lifting or lowering of the working element, the third - a turn, etc. Such a drive is usually equipped with a developed control and automation system.

In the first decades of the XX century. Multi-motor drive was carried out primarily in radial drilling and grinding machines. Thus, six engines were installed in the machine for grinding the necks of car axles: two of them turned the grinding wheels, two provided the feeding of wheels during the machining process, one rotated the workpiece and one activated the pump and the hydraulic jack.

Subsequently, the multi-motor electric drive, which ensures the automatic execution of technological operations and the coordination of individual movements, has become widespread in the machine tool industry. Due to the reduction of auxiliary operations, more accurate and smooth speed control, the productivity of the machines has significantly increased, the work of workers has become easier, the quality of the products has improved.

Essential advantages of the multi-motor drive stimulated its use in mining, metallurgical, textile, printing and many other machines.

Shukhardin S. V. "Technology in its historical development"