Stainless vs aluminum surrounding motor can

Which would be a better material?
Am building a hubmotor for a longboard and am making a liner that encases the motor which is epoxied to the urethane. Was planning on using aluminum, but have the right size stainless needed here at the shop I work at, so instead of ordering material figure I may as well use what is in stock. Can I use stainless without any effect to motor performance? It is 304 stainless.

Cheers

It depends on your motor.
coming out from the motor is some magnetic flux.. if your motor is "tight" then its only a small magnetic field and you only need a little airgap.
if it lets more through, then there will be some drag and loss. Dragging a magnet across a conductive surface creates heat (and wastes power)
easiest way to tell, is to put some steel near the motor, and see how far away you can feel any attraction.
second, not as easy but more accurate way to tell, is put the motor in the tube and run it at high speed and see if it slows it down at all (or if it uses more power in and out of the tube)

All that said, my scooter runs a 80-100 inside a steel tube. I have 1/4" of airgap and it doesnt effect it.

The motor is a 130kv sk6374 and am using the original can, just putting a liner over top of it. Figured stainless wouldn't be a bad option since it is not magnetic....well hardly magnetic. Wouldn't say the motor is extremely tight, there is a bit of a magnetic field on the can, but hardly noticeable.

Thanks for the response dude

Freshair said:

The motor is a 130kv sk6374 and am using the original can, just putting a liner over top of it. Figured stainless wouldn't be a bad option since it is not magnetic....well hardly magnetic. Wouldn't say the motor is extremely tight, there is a bit of a magnetic field on the can, but hardly noticeable.

Thanks for the response dude

Click to expand...

what exactly do you mean by liner? is it going to spin with the can, or stay still while the can spins in the middle?

if it spins with the can, making it out of steel is even better for keeping the magnetism in... however it also makes it heavier.. good or bad depending on how much flywheel weight you want.
however if there is not a lot of leakage in the first place it doenst help.

if you make it out of aluminum, it will help get out some of the heat... helpful if you're over driving the motor hard.

Yes the liner will spin with the can.

Thanks for the knowledge! Am not concerned about the weight nor so much about heat, it is a dual hubmotor set up and should not stress the motors much at all.

Looks like I am making it out of steel, even easier

Thanks Dude

Yes, the problem is when the motor spins inside a stationary metal enclosure as eddy currents are generated.

Try dropping a magnet down an aluminum tube. WEIRED slowdown. So the suggestion to run the motor in and out of the chamber seems a good one: note the readings, performances, etc.