Acknowledgements
This book arises largely from the work of an academic group at the Tokyo University of Science, the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the Tokyo University of Science, Suwa, in the period from about 1988 to 2004. All the authors have worked closely in bearingless motor developments. We would like to thank Professor Tazumi Deido and Professor Koichi Ikeda of the Tokyo University of Science for their support during the early developments. We would like to thank Professor Fukuzo Nakamura of the Tokyo University of Science and Professor Satoru Miyazawa of the Tokyo University of Science, Suwa, for coordinating and supporting the joint bearingless project on permanent magnet drives between two academic organizations. We also like to thank Professor M. Azizur Rahman of the Memorial University of Newfoundland. He invited Dr Chiba to be an International Post-Doctoral Fellow supported by Natural Science and Engineering Council of Canada. A prototype induction bearingless drive was built and tested in the Memorial University. He suggested that we use “bearingless” as a technical term in 1990. He and the authors have published several joint papers since the beginning of the era of bearingless drive developments. His strong support and nice suggestions have been very much appreciated. He has stayed in Tokyo through joint bearingless projects several times.
We would like to thank Professor Hirofumi Akagi and Dr Koji Takahashi of the Tokyo Institute of Technology; and Professor Yoichi Hayashi of the Aoyama Gakuin University for their kind support and co-operation in bearingless researches. We also like to thank Mr Chikara Michioka, who was a research associate in the Tokyo Institute of Technology, for his developments of homopolar hybrid and synchronous reluctance type bearingless motors. We also acknowledge research co-operations and discussions with Dr Mikihiko Matsui and Dr Fang Z. Peng while they were with the Tokyo Institute of Technology. We would like to thank Dr Andres O. Salazar of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte and Dr Jose Andres Santisteban L. of the Fluminense Federal University for their joint projects and co-operation while they were with the Tokyo University of Science.
We would like to acknowledge Mr Masaru Ohsawa, Mr Satoshi Mori and Mr Tadashi Satoh of the Ebara Research Company, Mr Masato Oota of the Seiko Seiki Company, Mr Yoshiaki Konishi of the Nikkiso Company and Mr Kazunobu Ogawa of J. Morita Tokyo Mfg Co. for their co-operation and support. We would also like to acknowledge Professor Yohji Okada and Professor Toru Masuzawa of Ibaraki University, Dr Reto Schoeb and Dr Thomas Gempp of Levitronix GmbH, Dr Paul Meuter of Sulzer Pumps Ltd and Dr Hideki Kanebako of Sankyo Seiki Mfg Co. for their permissions to include their developments as well as valuable discussions on bearingless projects.
We appreciate the valuable discussions on bearingless drives with Dr Tetsuo Ohishi, Dr Ken Matsuda, Dr Satoshi Ueno of Ibaraki University, Professor Daiki Ebihara, Dr Masaya Watada of the Musashi Institute of Technology, Professor Jorg Hugel, Dr Natale Barletta, Dr Christian Redemann of the Swiss Federal University, Professor Wolfgang Amrhein, Dr Siegfried Silber, Dr Klaus Nenninger of the Yohannes Kepler University of Linz, Professor Wilfried Hofmann of the Technical University of Chemnitz, Professor Hannes Bleuler of EPFL, Professor Richard M. Stephan of COPPE-UFRJ, Professor Paul E. Allaire in the University of Virginia and Dr Lyndon S. Stephen in the University of Kentucky.
We would like to express our appreciation to Professor T. J. E. Miller of the University of Glasgow for his suggestion and encouragement to write a book on magnetic bearings and bearingless motors. We also appreciate the efforts and patience of Mr Matthew Deans and Ms Jodi Burton of Newnes Publishers in Butterworth-Heinemann.
We would like to thank all the students who have contributed in bearingless machines developments through projects. My special thanks to Master students Messrs K. Chida, T. Hatsuda, S. Nomura, Y. Takamoto, R. Miyatake, R. Furuichi, Y. Yokotani, Y. Aikawa, K. Shimada, S. Hara, K. Hiraguri, H. Hosoda, E. Itho, K. Yoshida, Y. Shima, T. Gotou, N. Sugitani, M. Yamashita, K. Muronoi, K. Inagaki, K. Yasuda, T. Suzuki, N. Fujie, K. Kobayashi, R. Yoshimatsu, Y. Sakata, K. Yoshizue, T. Kuwajima, R. Hanawa, K. Kiryu, T. Nomoto, K. Yamashita, Y. Kubota, S. Aoyagi, T. Emori, T. Nobe, T. Fujishiro, S. Ogawa, S. Orita, T. Aoyagi, T. Kurokawa, T. Takenaga, K. Ebara, H. Saitoh, J. Amemiya, Y. Sakata, Y. Kurono, S. Itou and T. Hachiya; and Bachelor students Messrs N. Chino, Y. Kasahara, K. Yamada, T. Yokoyama, S. Onoya, T. Kikuchi, M. Yanagida, A. Suzuki, A. Tanaka, T. Ebihara, T. Ichikawa, K. Ninomiya, D. Yamaguchi, G. Kimura, R. Tsukakoshi, K. Ishiwaka (now Yoshida), S. Iwao, R. Yasuda, T. Tanimoto, T. Nakajima, T. Iida, S. Nogami, K. Maruyama, N. Andoh, T. Suzuki, A. Yajima, T. Takahashi, T. Sekiyama, T. Tera, M. Sakagami, T. Kobayashi, K. Asami, M. Nakagawa, D. Akamatsu, T. Katou, D. Fujimoto, R. Imaoka, N. Fujita of the Tokyo University of Science. We also would like to thank all the students in the Tokyo Institute of Technology who have engaged in bearingless projects in their graduate researches – Messrs Y. Miwa, H. Kawamura, M. Hanazawa, G. Fukuda, T. Sakamoto, J. Q. Li, H. Takita, I. Tomita, Y. Toyoshima, C. Kijja, T. Amakasu, F. Saito, T. Sugawara, I. Surya, T. Kikuchi and M. Uyama – and undergraduate researches – Messr K. Furuta, T. Tsumura, K. Shimbo, M. Haris, K. Yakushi, R. Sato, W. S. Ho, H. Nozawa, R. Matsumoto, Y. Matsumoto, H. Nakakoji, T. Matsumoto, K. Kitahara and T. Mantyu. We would also like to thank the students Messer’s M. Yamana (now Oshima), O. Uchikawa, M. Miyazawa, H. Muroga, K. Tanzawa, Y. Kikuchi, K. Sakai, H. Takahashi, H. Hashiba, M. Hasebe, T. Nagao, N. Kuroiwa, Y. Takizawa, T. Maejima and Y. Ito of the Science University of Tokyo, Suwa College. We would like to thank the students Messrs K. Miyagawa, D. Ishida, Y. Tanaka, N. Sugano, Y. Irino, Y. Kodama and D. Itou of the Musashi Institute of Technology. Special thanks are due to Mr Kazuya Kikuchi, Mr Takeshi Koshirakata and Ms Sae Ishii of Fukao’s Laboratory.
I thank Mr Tetsuya Nobe, a graduate student in the Tokyo University of Science, for his figure and table preparation for this book. Finally I thank my wife Hiromi for her kind encouragement.