SUMMARY
When using electric linear drives for vertical positioning of workloads, a constant force both during movement and at standstill must be supplied to compensate gravity. Compensating stationary forces by the use of passive components reduces the power consumption of the employed actuator and permits smaller dimensioning. In this article, we present a novel integrative actuator design which combines the inherent advantages of a permanent magnetic weight compensation with a two-phase linear direct drive. We illustrate how to design permanent magnetic force compensation to realize a constant compensating force over a desired actuator stroke. Analytical solutions for both the design of the direct drive and the design of the permanent magnetic weight compensation are derived and validated by simulation and experiment. The innovative actuator design is compared to a conventional, non-compensated drive, and we aim to provide the reader with insights into specific applications where the use of the weight-compensated actuator proves particularly effective.