Alternators/Generators & Parts

An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to alternating current electrical energy. Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field. Different geometries - such as a linear alternator for use with stirling engines - are also occasionally used. more...

In principle any AC generator can be called an alternator, but usually the word refers to small rotating machines driven by automotive and other internal combustion engines.

History

Alternating current generating systems were known in simple forms from the discovery of the magnetic induction of electric current. The early machines were developed by pioneers such as Michael Faraday and Hippolyte Pixii. Faraday developed the "rotating rectangle", whose operation was heteropolar. The first public demonstration of a more robust "alternator system" took place in 1886. Large two-phase alternating current generators were built by a British electrician, J.E.H. Gordon, in 1882. Lord Kelvin and Sebastian Ferranti also developed early alternators. These electromechanical alternators produced frequencies between 100 and 300 hertz. In 1891, Nikola Tesla patented a practical "high-frequency" alternator (which operated around 15,000 hertz).

After 1891, polyphase alternators were introduced to supply currents of multiple differing phases. Early alternators were designed for varying alternating-current frequencies between sixteen and several hundred hertz, for use with arc lighting, incandescent lighting and electric motors.

Theory of operation

Alternators generate electricity by the same principle as DC generators, namely, when the magnetic field around a conductor changes, a current is induced in the conductor. In a typical modern alternator, a rotating electromagnet called the rotor turns within a stationary set of conductors wound in coils on an iron core, called the stator. The field cuts across the conductors, generating an electrical current, as the mechanical input causes the rotor to turn.

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