Non-contact Gripping of Thin Steel Plates by Electro Magnetic Suspension

In recent years, demand for thin steel plate used in the manufacture of automobiles and household electrical appliances has been increasing. Since contact conveyance using rollers, etc. is used in the manufacturing and plating processes of thin steel plates, quality deterioration such as distortion and surface scratches of thin steel plates has become a problem. As a solution to this problem, magnetic levitation technology has been proposed to grip and transport thin steel plates in a non-contact method. However, thin steel plates have low bending rigidity and deflection occurs during levitation. Deflection causes thin steel plates to oscillate in complex shapes, making levitation unstable. In this report, a magnetic levitation system that levitates thin steel plates in an orientation that minimizes the moment of inertia relative to gravity was proposed, and experimentally investigated the possibility of levitation.