A basic study on levitation characteristics of metal foil by edge-supported electromagnetic levitation system

The grasping and conveying of an object by utilizing the frictional force generated by contact are performed during various steps in the process of manufacturing industrial products. Deterioration of the surface quality due to these contacts is a problem. A noncontact way to transport steel plates using electromagnetic force has been proposed as a solution to these problems. In such applications to date, electromagnets are installed in the vertical direction. However, if the steel plate is thin and lacks sufficient flexural rigidity, it is difficult to exert enough suspension force to levitate the entire steel plate. To solve this problem, we propose an edge-supported electromagnetic levitation system suitable for flexible steel plates using electromagnets installed in the horizontal direction. In this paper, we report on levitation experiments to verify the effectiveness of the proposed system and discuss characteristics of the horizontal positioning of electromagnets and levitation suspension.