US Patent 7321176 Multi pole electrical machine with reduced cogging force

A multi pole electrical machine includes an armature and a stator. The armature is movable in a direction of armature motion with regard to said stator and includes armature pole pairs. These armature pole pairs follow each other in the direction of armature motion. Each armature pole pair corresponds to one magnetic period. The stator includes a differing fixed number of stator poles per armature pole pair to reduce a cogging force of the electrical machine. An arrangement of the stator poles, with regard to both electrical and magnetic aspects, includes at least two identical sub-arrangements of stator poles. These sub-arrangements of stator poles follow each other in the direction of armature motion. Each of the sub-arrangements of stator poles is associated with one or more armature pole pairs and includes more than three of stator poles.