Mechanical Winding Changeover System of Induction Motors for Vehicle Applications

This report presents a mechanical winding- changeover system to improve energy consumption of traction motors for automobiles. We have adopted multi contacts to downsize the winding-changeover device and established the operation principle which does not occur any contact arc, where the switching timing is controlled so that the motor internal voltage is constantly below the inverter DC voltage. A developed winding-changeover device is downsized by half compared with the conventional relay structure of 5L, with rated current of 440 Arms, and will ensure the longer lifetime of the switching contact. The actual test of 1.5 kW induction motor system demonstrated that the contact arc did not occur at the winding changeover operation during motor acceleration.