Linear actuators in, e.g., the food-processing or pharmaceutical industries are enclosed in stainless steel (SS) to facilitate thorough cleaning and disinfection.
Efficient wireless power transfer (WPT) through these SS enclosures realizes wireless electrification tool carriages and eliminates bulky, hard-to-clean power cables and cable carrier assemblies. This digest proposes a novel concept for current-impressed WPT through SS to multiple independent loads. The proposed method is thoroughly analyzed, optimized, verified in simulations, and compared against conventional voltage-impressed and current-impressed approaches, showing a clear complexity reduction and significant efficiency improvements, respectively. The final paper will contain a detailed experimental characterization of the proposed concept implemented in an industry-like, SS-enclosed linear actuator demonstrator system with two independent 100 W loads.