Undergrad Producing enough force with a Solenoid

[PLA2820]

TL;DR

Producing enough force with a Solenoid

Hi,

This is not a homework problem, but a small personal project where I am looking to create a small solenoid that can create enough pushing force of approximately 0.5 lbs. I am wondering what the best route is to create this amount of force.

So far, I was able to lift about 32g with my first solenoid which was 34 AWG wire wrapped about 9500 times around a coil with a plastic insert thickness (between the armature and coil) of .045 inches and this was at 32V power supply. The cylinder armature is .25 inches in diameter and 1 inch long.

To generate a stronger force what are some changes I can make to my coil? I would ideally like to be able to use 9V to generate this force in the long run. I am not sure if I am missing any other information that would be helpful but please let me know, Thank you.

 

[renormalize]

To generate a stronger force what are some changes I can make to my coil? I would ideally like to be able to use 9V to generate this force in the long run. I am not sure if I am missing any other information that would be helpful but please let me know, Thank you.

How about starting with something like this: https://engineering.icalculator.com/solenoid-coil-electromagnetic-force-calculator.html ?
You input the Length, Area, Number-of-Turns & Current for the coil and it calculates Force. You get voltage from the current by finding the total resistance of the turns of wire and using Ohm's law.

 

[berkeman]

TL;DR Summary: Producing enough force with a Solenoid

This is not a homework problem, but a small personal project where I am looking to create a small solenoid that can create enough pushing force of approximately 0.5 lbs. I am wondering what the best route is to create this of force.

So far, I was able to lift about 32g with my first solenoid which was 34 AWG wire wrapped about 9500 times around a coil with a plastic insert thickness (between the armature and coil) of .045 inches and this was at 32V power supply. The cylinder armature is .25 inches in diameter and 1 inch long.

Great reply by @renormalize so I can only add a couple small questions/points.

You mention a "push" requirement by your solenoid -- hopefully you see that solenoids attract metal slugs into their interior because of the magnetic field gradient. Solenoids cannot "push" unless you convert their pull into a push via a non-conductive back-pusher plastic rod. Does that make sense?

It's great that you've made an attractive solenoid, but it would be good if you could post the equations associated with your device. What was the resistance per unit length of your wire, and what current does that imply for the voltage you applied? Are you sure that your voltage source supplied that full source voltage to your load, or maybe did your load decrease the source voltage due to the source resistance?

What would you estimate your peak internal solenoid B-field to be given your source voltage and coil resistance and resulting number of amp-turns?