Rewinding an Induction Motor for Low Voltage

Just rewinding motors is an artform....To try and change it to something completely different, well, that takes a leap of faith.....I would definitely do some research, and read this book....

http://www.amazon.com/Electric-Motor-Repair-Robert-Rosenberg/dp/0030595843

Initially the number of slots in the stator stampings are to be determined, then the speed of the motor in rpm is also to be known.all details i.e the no of turns in each slot, the pitch of existing winding, the SWG of the conductor is to be determined.

Then an approx. design can be arrived at.

Wow.

Can this possibly be done? I have to admit that one can probably rewind a three phase induction motor stator winding to accept single or any other multiple-phase supply (split, two, five or other phase) source. The goal here is to produce a stator field that uniformly rotates uniformly in the stator. The unstated critical factor is the number of stator poles available in the stator core configuration as one makes a complete orbit around the axis. A single phase stator can have any number of poles a three phase stator must have multiples of three for their number of poles. So a twelve pole stator can be driven by a single, true two, three or four (two different split) phase power sources depending on the coil geometry. Your images almost provide enough information to say if the stator is a twelve pole or not.

The question really is if a combination is possible in this stator.

The number of stator slots must be a multiple of 6 for the 3 phase winding to be symmetrical, something that is not always the case with small single phase motors, many stator cores in that power category are 16, 32 or 40 slots, and can't be winded 3-phase consistently. Another serious issue is that with PWM brushless driving at higher RPM and higher iron AND mechanical losses, bearings may suffer with the higher induced eddy currents and not so well balanced rotor, so you may need mods there too. In most cases it's not worth the trouble. S.M.

Why would you want to do it? The costs of changing, assuming for a moment that it is even possible, would probably exceed the price of a new, correct motor with a guarantee that it works....then you can sell the old one and get part/all of your investment back......

Maybe you can even find a good secondhand motor where you live at an even lower cost.....Electric Bike hub motors are 3 phase and can be bought for that voltage on ebay for example.....very low prices too.

In my (very) limited experience, single phase induction motors command a good price, secondhand, in the private sector as often only one phase is available in many countries - UK and USA for example.....3 phase motors interest few in that sector, so price wise, you may be onto a good thing.....

Are you making a motor for a "Pedelec" maybe?

Just a thought.

I have seen some very small 3 phase motors on ebay. 400v 180 watts. I was wanting to attempt a rewind just as a project to see if it could work I have thick magnet wire lying around. The motor would probably need hall sensors because I doubt that induction motors would give enough back EMF for the controller to pick up.