Permanent Magnet (PM) Brushless Direct Current (BLDC) actuators/motors have many advantages over conventional machines, including high efficiency, easy controllability over a wide range of operating speeds, etc. There are many prototypes for such motors; some of them have a very complicated construction, and this ensures their high efficiency. However, in the case of household appliances, the most important thing is simplicity, and, thus, the lowest price of the design and production. This article presents a comparison of computer models of different design solutions for a small PM BLDC motor that uses a rotor in the form of a single ferrite magnet. The analyses were performed by using the finite element method. This paper presents unique self-defined parts of basic PM BLDC actuators. With their help, various design solutions were compared with the PM BLDC motor used in household appliances. The authors proved that the reference device is the lightest one and has a lower cogging torque compared to other actuators, but also has a slightly lower driving torque.
Keywords: PM BLDC; actuator; finite element methods; modeling and simulation; motor.