How an Alternator Works: The Ultimate Guide

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⌚Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:40 - What is an alternator?
01:27 - Alternator vs. generator
01:55 - Major components
02:15 - Rotor
02:59 - Stator
05:15 - Rectifier
06:48 - Diode trio and voltage regulator

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In this video, we’re going to talk about a major component of many electrical power or charging systems, the Alternator. In particular, we’re going to look closely at a typical vehicle alternator.

We’ll look inside an alternator and examine all of its individual parts. Then we’ll discuss how these parts work together to do the work that the alternator is intended to do.

An alternator is a device that converts mechanical energy into AC electrical energy.
In a vehicle, the engine turns a drive belt that rotates a pulley attached to the alternator.
It’s probably safe to say that an alternator is a generator.

The alternator actually generates power for the vehicle. As the alternator rotates, it creates a DC voltage primarily to charge the vehicle battery. The battery provides the huge current required to start the vehicle engine.

Once the vehicle is running, the alternator assists by providing power to run the vehicle’s electrical systems.

There are differences in alternator construction and as such, there are a different number of components depending on the vendor.

Alternators have three major components and they are the Rotor, stator, and rectifier. There are more components and we’ll get to those as we progress through our discussion.

1. Alternator rotor
A drive belt pulley system spins the rotor on a shaft while the vehicle engine is running.
At the heart of the rotor is an electromagnet often referred to as field windings.

An electromagnet consists of a length of conductive wire wrapped around a piece of magnetic metal. Voltage is applied to the coiled wire creating a current in it. This creates a magnetic field around the coiled wire.

Much like a permanent magnet, there is a North and a South pole.
A rotor also has a series of alternating North and South finger pole pieces placed around the field windings that wrap around the iron core on the rotor shaft.

2. Alternator stator
The rotor fits inside the Stator. The stator is a stationary part of the alternator. The rotor spins inside the stator without physically touching it. On each end of the shaft sits a brush and a slip ring.

The Stator consists of three separate coil windings with one end of each winding connected together. The stator coil windings are evenly spaced at intervals of 120 degrees around the iron shaft.

There will be a voltage induced in each stator winding. The induced voltages will be AC because of the electromagnetic pole changing during the rotor rotation.

3. Alternator rectifier
How do we convert AC to DC? By using a Rectifier.
More often than not, the alternator rectifier has six diodes. The six diodes are mounted in a heatsinking material to protect them from burning up.

The diodes are configured in such a way that we rectify and convert both half-cycles of every stator voltage AC voltage.

A DC voltage is applied via the slip rings from two different sources.
The first source is from the battery when the engine is started. The second source is from the alternator itself once the rotor is spinning via a component called the diode trio.

Exactly like the rectifier, the diode trio input terminals are connected to each stator voltage output. The output terminal of each diode is connected together.

The diode trio converts part of the stator output voltages to a DC voltage.
The diode trio output is fed to the voltage regulator and becomes the energizing voltage for the rotor electromagnet once the engine has been started and is running.

The purpose of the voltage regulator is to adjust the electromagnet energizing voltage so that the stator output voltages are held relatively constant regardless of the rotational speed of the rotor.
The stator voltage is rectified and then used to charge the battery.

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#RealPars #Alternator #generator

[oficinadoeletricista]

Exceptional explanatory.
The lessons in your videos are extraordinary and of an absurd level of clarity in all the explanation that is passed to us allowing an understanding so facilitated that it is impossible to see only once.
Sorry for my English, because I'm still learning.
Congrats on the amazing works.
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[vigneshs]

Most useful channel I have ever found and these topics can no one explain better than this. Hats off u👏 and thank you for the quality content in all your videos for enlightening our knowledge.

[tehuiasouthcoast]

Thank you I’ve spent two days in tafe and couldn’t understand the charging system lessons

This 11 minutes was way more detailed and informative than my tafe teacher thank you so much

[shahbozsherali]

This is the best explanation I have seen so far. In fact, this video inspired me to subscribe your channel.

[brodieperrett]

2 years later and just helped me so much for my school work. Big ups this video.

[shashikantmahimkar]

Really impressive presentation ! Subject is made very easy to understand for all levels of learners. Great job !

[cobretticobra]

Man how did people design all those rectifier diodes and regulators impressive stuff

[diwasshah]

Dear Sir, I came here today and impressed with your videos. I pushed the like button in advance before watching full videos.

[arlenburgin]

How the heck did mankind come up with this stuff?

[mrrobotech]

Keep making videos on industrial robotics nd Automation

[nabilhamdioui]

Nice video as always. Can you tell us please what software used in it?

[richmond]

Can you give more imformation about the relation between alternator and starter on the video. But thanks alot for the info.

[johnodonnell]

Excellent video but contains a major discrepancy. 0:44 and 1:32 defines an alternator as a device that converts mech energy to "AC" electrical energy. 9:38 defines it as a device that converts mech energy to "DC" electrical energy. Which is it?

[tur]

What does it mean by (the rectifier output battery charge voltage rises) ?

[babarishaque]

When the first starting initially needed battery voltage to drive the rotor, but when started, the alternator produced rectified dc voltage to charge the battery voltage. Then the selector switch turns off itself not provide a voltage to the rotor? Please answer

[automotivetechnologyinorom]

10Q is a very good experience share for us

[kxrcuql]

It's very detailed but I still have question in mind... Does it mean that without battery the alternator cannot produce electricity because there's no voltage to supplied in rotor to create an electromagnet from the start?

Or can it still produce electricity? Because there's a generator like (Honda ER2500CX Petrol And Gas Generator) there's no battery in it and just start only pulling the cord

Thanks by the way your video is very awesome👌hope you could answer my question