Interpoles are not a cure all for sparking. They can prevent sparking if the current is not too high. Interpoles work well only if the current is not high enough to saturate the interpoles. For any motor with interpoles and brushes set to neutral, sparking will start at a certain current. As current is increased further, sparking rapidly gets worse. In a well designed motor sparking will start well above, perhaps at 300% of, continuous rated current.
John Wayland racing his Kostov motor encounted serious sparking when the current was high enough. It sounds like the TEVan motor at its maximum current has the same problem. Tom Shay ----- Original Message ----- From: "Rod Hower" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2002 10:51 AM Subject: RE: SepEx Motors and Controllers for EVs > > I'm certainly no motor expert, so these are questions that Lee could (and > probably has) answered. > The TEVan does have interpoles, but it still had an arcing problem. > Maybe the motor was not designed properly? > More than likely it just wasn't enough motor for a 5,000 lb van. > It's a 9" frame with an oil cooled center shaft in the rotor. >
