Have you ever wondered how many motors you own and use at home? Probably not, and do you really care? But if you took an informal inventory, you’d likely be surprised. Your home is loaded with motors. A/C units, washers, dryers, refrigerators, pool pumps, and way too many small ones to count (shavers, hair dryers, ceiling fans, kitchen appliances, power tools, and even the driver motors in your DVD player or CD player if you still own one.
However, in most factories, process control plants, and office buildings, there are even more motors pervade for HVAC, machine tools, robots, pumps, automated machines of special design, forklifts, and hundreds perhaps thousands beyond those. Motors run the show in industry and many other fields like automotive, aerospace, and military.