why coils?

[kajs]

I am a newbie here and electricity.

why coils in stator? why not wire it like this:

would not this reduce resistance?

thanks!

[RP]

Sometimes they are wired that way.  It's called wave-winding but there's the same length of wire in it.

Try taking the bottom of your drawing and sliding it sideways and you'll have a picture of typical coils with the same amount of wire!

[electrondady1]

it's very easy to do a single test coil with out committing to an entire stator.

but a wave wound stator requires you to mock up an entire stator even if your just testing one strand.

[kajs]

Thanks.

[spinningmagnets]

kajs, I haven't built one yet, but trust me you want to exactly copy a proven design that has the output that fits your needs.

Here's a story about one of those if you want to experiment with a wave-wound alternator:

http://www.fieldlines.com/story/2008/11/27/211427/37

Best of luck!

[kajs]

thanks for the link. you will get to know me!

[Flux]

For very low voltage machines with a single conductor the wave winding has some advantage. For normal machines you need multiple conductors per slot and when you do that the length of wire becomes the same as a lap winding.

Groups of conductors per slot are just called coils and they can be lap or wave. Wave winding is more common with DC machines where the ends are linked by the commutator segments. With alternators and a wave winding you have to wind all the turns in by hand or you wind a skein and then wind that in and out of the slots.

Flux