How to improve the power output of an AC motor without changing its characteristics I have an AC motor at 230V/50Hz and 2.2 KW power that will power a drilling bit for cutting wood.
The motor has 3000 RPM, but if I attach the drilling bit (8 cm wide, 15 cm long and with a step of 8 mm) it just won't penetrate the log, so I'm looking for a way to increase the power without changing how I connect the motor.
What I'd like is to modify that metal wheel (at the top) that can be seen in the video that drives the drilling bit, but I'm not sure how to calculate the diameter of that in order to have higher power.
Any ideas?
 A: My first inclination would be to put a better motor controller that would regulate first current, then speed. By this method when the bit is loaded, the controller would source more current to the drive to maintain a set velocity.
But you suggested perhaps doing something to the flywheel/pulley, and yes indeed there is a simpler and cheaper solution, and one based in fundamental physics rather than brute force engineering.
The one thing you will give up is that initially it will take a bit longer for the system to accelerate and come up to speed. But once it does it will better resist the torque loading applied when you split the wood.
So as to maintain the same speed, keep the larger pulley as is, but attach to that same shaft another flywheel that is larger diameter and mostly weighted around its circumference. What this will achieve is a higher moment of inertia for the upper shaft and the ability to store more angular momentum. It appears that when you load the splitting bit it isn't too long before the log is split, so the wheel just needs to be sized accordingly. Without knowing, even approximately what the speed and torque loading is, it's hard to say how much you would need to increase.
Better to keep larger diameter, lower weight than smaller diameter, larger weight so that you don't side load the bearings as much and wear them out.
A: Adding mass will increase inertia, but will also lower the rotating speed. The "power" are those 2.2 kW so there's not much mechanical cheating if you don't modify tension/current supply, that would change the working diagram of the motor
