Power conversion engineering company Converteam will run a full power demonstration of its newly developed ship propulsion motor during factory tests in early 2010, it was announced at the Defence Systems & Equipment International 2009 event in London.
The 15MW advanced propulsion motor (APM) is designed to maximise the power density, efficiency and reliability of the complete variable speed drive system on the propulsion motor and its power electronic controller aboard a naval ship.
According to the company, the APM occupies 40% less volume than the equivalent advanced induction motor system but is three times more power dense than an equivalent DC machine thanks to the patented active stator technology.
The motor features include the implementation of a trapezoidal armature current waveform, mounting the power semiconductor devices within the motor frame itself and liquid cooling of the electronic commutator, rotor and machine via a single cooling unit.
The APM is currently being considered for the UK Royal Navy’s future surface combatant programme and future submarine applications.
Converteam UK naval business segment director Mark Dannatt said the APM will produce a motor compact enough to be installed in future classes of vessel for which the present generation of propulsion motors are simply too large.
The UK Ministry of Defence Future Business Group contracted Converteam to build and demonstrate a prototype tandem APM in April 2008.
