[Salty9]

Implications?

http://www.engineeringtv.com/video/C...tive-Engineers

[SandRailEV]

Originally Posted by Salty9

Implications?

http://www.engineeringtv.com/video/C...tive-Engineers

It's my understanding that copper in rotors reduces losses thereby making the motor more efficient.. I believe Tesla uses copper in their rotors...

[Ziggythewiz]

I guess I thought all rotors were typically copper. I don't know what kind he's talking about, but most don't seem to have enough mass for the material cost difference to matter much.

[Salty9]

Many induction motors use aluminum bars in rotors.

[Nathan219]

I can confirm the Tesla Copper rotor.

[Tesseract]

Implications? Copper for the rotor bars will have lower losses (and silver lower still) but aluminum is infinitely more popular simply because it is easier to cast the bars in place with it. Copper does not form good castings and any alloying to improve the casting ability (e.g. - the bronzes and brasses) results in a much higher bulk resistivity (called ρ, or lower case rho).

The induction motor has been around for more than 100 years - there's not much new going on inside of one these days.