Amplidyne

Amplidyne
the power, turning the generator, and the power output is

controlled by changing the field current of the generator.
In a typical generator the load brushes are positioned per-
pendicular to the magnetic field flux. To convert a gen-
erator to an amplidyne, what would normally be the load
brushes are connected together and the output is taken
from another set of brushes that are parallel with the field.
The perpendicular brushes are now called the 'quadrature'
brushes. This simple change can increase the gain by a
factor of 10,000 or more.
The amplidyne’s frequency response is limited to low fre-
quencies, it cannot even handle audio frequencies, so its
use is limited to amplifying low frequency control signals
Three amplidynes, from a 1951 General Electric advertisement in industrial processes.
(not to same scale). (top left) 1 kW amplidyne motor-generator,
(bottom left) 3 kW amplidyne motor-generator, (right) 5 kW am- Historically, amplidynes were one of the first amplifiers
plidyne generator. to generate very high power (tens of kilowatts), allowing
precise feedback control of heavy machinery. Vacuum
tubes of reasonable size were unable to deliver enough
power to control large motors, but vacuum tube circuits
driving the input of an amplidyne could be used to boost
small signals up to the power needed to drive large mo-
tors. Early (World War II era) gun tracking and radar
systems used this approach.
Amplidynes are now obsolete technology, replaced by
modern power semiconductor electronic devices such as
MOSFETs and IGBTs which can produce output power
in the kilowatt range.
Figure 1 of the patent drawing

2 Use in gun mount control system
An amplidyne is an electromechanical amplifier invented
during World War II by Ernst Alexanderson. It consists
of an electric motor driving a DC generator. The signal
to be amplified is applied to the generator’s field winding,
and its output voltage is an amplified copy of the field
current. The amplidyne is used in industry in high power
servo and control systems, to amplify low power control
signals to control powerful electric motors, for example.
It is now mostly obsolete.
1 How an amplidyne works

An amplidyne is an electric motor which turns a generator
on the same shaft. Unlike an ordinary motor-generator, Amplidyne circuit as used in U.S. Navy naval gun control. This
the purpose of an amplidyne is not to generate a steady is a high-power position servo system.
voltage but to generate a voltage proportional to an in-
put current, to amplify the input. The motor provides The amplidyne was first used in the US Navy in servo
1
2 6 EXTERNAL LINKS
systems to control the electric motors rotating naval gun 4 See also
mounts, to aim the gun at a target. The system (diagram
left) is a feedback control system in which a feedback sig- • Brushed DC electric motor
nal from a sensor representing the current position of the
gun is compared with the control signal which represents • Electric motor
the desired position, and the difference is amplified by the
• Harry Ward Leonard
amplidyne generator to turn the gun mount motor. The
components are: • Metadyne
• a synchro control transformer; • Motor-generator

• an amplifier; • Ward Leonard control
• the amplidyne motor-generator, which is similar to
a Ward Leonard control drive;
5 References
• and the follow-up DC motor which drives the load
to be positioned. [2]
Chapter 10 of the U.S. Navy manual Naval Ordnance and

Gunnery, Volume 1 (1957) explains the operation of the [1] Naval Ordnance and Gunnery, Volume 1, 1957, U.S. Navy
amplidyne:[1] Manual, Chapter 10.
[2] G. J. Thaler and M. L. Wilcox, Electric Machines, Wiley,

“The synchro control transformer receives the New York, 1966, pp. 135-149.
order signal which indicates electrically what
the position of the load should be. The rotor of
the synchro control transformer is turned by the
response shaft, which is geared to the load and
6 External links
so indicates what the position of the load actu-
ally is. The synchro compares the actual load • US Patent 2236984 Electric motor control system
position with the ordered position; and, if the • Adventures in Cybersound website
two do not agree, it generates an alternating-
current signal which is transmitted to the am-
plifier. The angular difference between the two
positions is called the error, and the signal to
the amplifier is the error signal. The error sig-
nal indicates by its electrical characteristics the
size and direction of the error. If no error ex-
ists, the system is said to be in correspondence
and the error signal is zero.”[1]
Specifically, the phase of the control transformer’s out-

put (in phase with the synchro power source, or opposite
phase) provided the polarity of the error signal. A phase-
sensitive demodulator, with the synchro AC power as its
reference, created the DC error signal of the required po-
larity.
3 Applications
Amplidynes were initially used for electric elevators and
to point naval guns, and antiaircraft artillery radar such
as SCR-584 in 1942. Later used to control processes in
steelworks.
Used to remotely operate the control rods in early nuclear
submarine designs (S3G Triton).
Diesel-electric locomotive control systems. Early ALCO
road-switcher locomotives used this technology.
3
7 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.1 Text
• Amplidyne Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplidyne?oldid=693686744 Contributors: Hooperbloob, Atlant, Woohookitty,
SmackBot, Hmains, Nagle, Peter Horn, Chetvorno, Wikid77, MichaelFrey, Nikevich, Natg 19, Wingedsubmariner, Biscuittin, Cb77305,
Bob1960evens, Sabbah67, Bensonrt, Addbot, Yobot, JackieBot, Usnftg, Sympatycznyfacet, Hosomaki, DMChatterton, Tim PF, Piast93
and Anonymous: 8
7.2 Images
• File:Amplidynecircuit.gif Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Amplidynecircuit.gif License: Public domain
Contributors: ? Original artist: ?
• File:Three_GE_amplidynes_1951.jpg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Three_GE_amplidynes_1951.
jpg License: Public domain Contributors: Retrieved from <a data-x-rel='nofollow' class='external text' href='http://www.
americanradiohistory.com/Archive-Electronics/50s/Electronics-1951-02.pdf'>Electronics magazine, McGraw-Hill Publishing Co., New
York, Vol. 24, No. 2, February 1951, p. 138</a> on http://www.americanradiohistory.com/ Original artist: Un-
known<a href='//www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q4233718' title='wikidata:Q4233718'><img alt='wikidata:Q4233718' src='https://upload.
wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/20px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png' width='20' height='11' srcset='https://
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/30px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 1.5x, https://upload.wikimedia.
org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/ff/Wikidata-logo.svg/40px-Wikidata-logo.svg.png 2x' data-file-width='1050' data-file-height='590'
/></a>
• File:US2236984-Figure1.png Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d1/US2236984-Figure1.png License: Public
domain Contributors: https://www.google.co.in/patents/US2236984 Original artist: Alexanderson Ernst F W
7.3 Content license

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Amplidyne

the power, turning the generator, and the power output is

Figure 1 of the patent drawing

1 How an amplidyne works

• a synchro control transformer; • Motor-generator

Chapter 10 of the U.S. Navy manual Naval Ordnance and

[2] G. J. Thaler and M. L. Wilcox, Electric Machines, Wiley,

Speciﬁcally, the phase of the control transformer’s out-

7 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

7.3 Content license

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