Product Description

Electric Motors and Drives is intended for non-specialist users of electric motors and drives, filling the gap between maths- and theory-based academic textbooks and the more prosaic 'handbooks', which provide useful detail but little opportunity for the development of real insight and understanding. The book explores all of the widely-used modern types of motor and drive, including conventional and brushless D.C., induction motors and servo drives, providing readers with the knowledge to select the right technology for a given job.

The third edition includes additional diagrams and worked examples throughout. New topics include digital interfacing and control of drives, direct torque control of induction motors and current-fed operation in DC drives. The material on brushless servomotors has also been expanded.

Austin Hughes' approach, using a minimum of maths, has established Electric Motors and Drives as a leading guide for electrical engineers and mechanical engineers, and the key to a complex subject for a wider readership, including technicians, managers and students.

* Acquire knowledge of and understanding of the capabilities and limitations of motors and drives without struggling through unnecessary maths and theory
* Updated material on the latest and most widely-used modern motors and drives, including brushless servomotors
* New edition includes additional diagrams and worked examples throughout

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29891 in Books
• Published on: 2005-12-14
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
"This book is very readable, up-to-date and should be extremely useful to both users and o.e.m. designers. I unhesitatingly recommend it to any busy engineer who needs to make informed judgments about selecting the right drive system."
- Drives and Controls

"A very useful reference book for anyone wanting a comprehensive understanding of motors and drives ... I have not seen another book which covers this wide subject more comprehensively and in such an easy-to-read style."
- Silicon Chip, May 2006

"I would regard this book as a light but broad coverage of many motor and drive concepts that have been around a long time."
- Dennis Feucht, Innovatia.com

"The coverage of drive types and behaviors is thorough and up to date."
- Electrical Apparatus, May 2006

Customer Reviews

More than undergraduate text, its a classic
This book is a gem. Whilst an undergraduate, a fellow student recommended this book to me and proved to be a well-balanced,comprehendable mine of information. Most other books are either too simple or buried in math equations, this book delivers a progressive, realistic overview of both ac and dc motors and keeps the maths to a minimum. The ideas matter at the learning stage, maths can bog things down if your not sure what they are trying to prove. You can then comprehend the torque graphs later on! With this book, I helped to solve a problem in his thyristor controlled motor system before other engineers had a clue! More than undergraduate text, its a practical modern classic in the field.

excellent
I've been working as an electrical engineer for a couple of years and had forgotten(and occasionally not been taught) a large portion about electrical drives. This book is an excellent guide for undergraduates or recent graduates, covering almost every aspect of electrical drives. It has an excellent section on variable speed drives and a very good explanation of load types and load behaviour.

The two critiscisms I had of the book was, the treatment of rotors poles and how they are created was a little light and the explanation of why an induction motors starting current is independant of its load is also not very explicit. Personally I would like to have seen more detail on motor temperature rises, but I accept this isn't useful for everyone.

In short its an excellent book which i still refer to today, its worth every penny. Buy it!!

A great book for system designers seeking to come to grips with electric motor fundamentals.
I came to this book whilst looking for a systems approach to implementing a brushless DC motor drive model in MATLAB/Simulink. The first step being the basics of motor operation. As such I wanted to avoid an overly complex mathematical discussion of motor physics, especially field theory, yet with enough detail to gain an intuitive feel for what the design trade-offs were.

Austin Hughes gives the strong impression of someone who has struggled with understanding the basics of motors and he explains these essentials with care and clarity.

The book is well structured, giving an excellent review of motor/drives basics; the focus is on developing a usable grasp of the key issues. The author is happy to repeat major points so as to build understanding. Each chapter ends with review questions with numerical answers at the end of the book. Web based full solutions of these questions are also available.

This book has done more to improve my understanding of the design/operation of motors than any other source on the subject.

It represents excellent value, considering the books modest pricing compared to some works in the field, and so deserves a place on the desk of anyone wanting to control motors in the real world.

A useful companion book, which is a thorough readable primer on the architectural side of motor systems, is W Bolton: Mechatronics: ISBN-10: 0132407639.