{"id":13149,"date":"2022-01-09T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T18:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/?p=13149"},"modified":"2026-02-21T00:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-21T08:24:12","slug":"working-principle-of-dc-motor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/working-principle-of-dc-motor\/","title":{"rendered":"Working Principle Of DC Motor: 2026 Complete Guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In our daily lives, we come across a variety of battery-powered electrical gadgets that transform electrical energy into mechanical energy, such as hairdryers, toy vehicles, tiny fans, trimmers, and so on. The electrical component responsible for this action is a Direct Current (DC) motor present inside those gadgets.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A DC motor is a type of electric machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. They take electrical power through direct current and convert this energy into mechanical rotation. Today, DC motors have become an integral part of the industrial sector and are used for various applications, such as electric vehicle propulsion, elevators, cranes, and steel rolling mill drives. In this article, we will discuss the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">working principle of DC motor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Follow this new blog in Linquip to find out more.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13180\" src=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-1.png\" alt=\"Working Principle Of DC Motor\" width=\"710\" height=\"502\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-1.png 710w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-1-300x212.png 300w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-1-696x492.png 696w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 710px) 100vw, 710px\" \/><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">DC Motor Components<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To understand the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">working principle of DC motor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, let\u2019s first look at the components used in its construction. A <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/DC_motor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DC motor<\/a> usually looks like a cylindrical device with a shaft extending out of it that rotates on applying DC. This action is carried out by arranging the following components in a particular manner.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stator<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A stator, or a steel yoke, is a cylindrical metal casing inside which all the other elements of a DC motor are placed. One face of the stator contains a vertical shaft coming out of it, while the other face has the two terminals to which the DC power supply is connected.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Magnets<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are two stationary permanent magnets installed inside the stator of a DC motor. They act as the north and south poles of a magnet by setting up a horizontal magnetic field across them.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Armature<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In electrical engineering, the term armature refers to a structure of rotating coils under the influence of electromagnetic force. In a DC motor, an armature is composed of a rotor placed between the two magnets. A rotor is a structure of laminated discs wrapped around by a conducting field coil. The shaft pointing out of the motor passes along the axis of the armature and rotates along with it.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Field Coil<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The field coil or field winding in a DC motor is a coil of copper wires that replaces the permanent magnets attached to the inside walls of the stator. When DC from a battery is passed through this coil, it forms an electromagnet whose polarity can be controlled, setting up a desired magnetic field.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Commutator<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A commutator is a hollow cylindrical piece segmented at many spots to reverse the polarity of the electromagnetic armature coil inside the DC motor. It is a critical part of a motor to work on a DC power supply. It sits at the end of the armature around the shaft. The ends of the armature coil are connected to the commutator, while all other parts, except brushes, are electrically isolated from it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Brushes<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The brushes in a DC motor are the components that connect the static terminals to the rotating parts of the motor. They are usually made of carbon graphite since it is a great conductor of electricity and have excellent lubricant properties. The commutator is positioned between the two brushes, which are further connected to the motor\u2019s terminals, completing the circuit with the DC power source.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13179\" src=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2.-main-2.jpg\" alt=\"Working Principle Of DC Motor\" width=\"1800\" height=\"1200\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2.-main-2.jpg 1800w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2.-main-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2.-main-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2.-main-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2.-main-2-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2.-main-2-696x464.jpg 696w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2.-main-2-1392x928.jpg 1392w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2.-main-2-1068x712.jpg 1068w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1800px) 100vw, 1800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Read More on Linquip<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a title=\"Working Principle of Stepper Motor: The Only Guide You\u2019ll Ever Need\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/working-principle-of-stepper-motor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\">Working Principle of Stepper Motor: The Only Guide You\u2019ll Ever Need<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><strong><a title=\"Everything You Need to Know About Working Principle of AC Motor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/working-principle-of-ac-motor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Everything You Need to Know About Working Principle of AC Motor<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"The Only Guide You\u2019ll Ever Need For The Working Principle of Induction Motor\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/the-only-guide-youll-ever-need-for-the-working-principle-of-induction-motor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><strong>The Only Guide You\u2019ll Ever Need For The Working Principle of Induction Motor<\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 10pt;\"><a title=\"DC Motor Parts, Structure, Design and Advantages\" href=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/dc-motor-parts\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">DC Motor Parts, Structure, Design and Advantages<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Working Principle Of DC Motor<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A DC motor works on the principle that whenever a current-carrying conductor is placed inside a magnetic field, it experiences a magnetic force whose direction is given by Fleming\u2019s Left-hand Rule. In other words, the DC motor spins due to the interaction of the permanent magnet\u2019s magnetic field with the magnetic field of the current-carrying electromagnet.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fleming&#8217;s Left-Hand Rule<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Fleming\u2019s Left-hand rule is a mnemonic tool to understand the mutually perpendicular relationship between the current, an applied magnetic field, and induced force in an electric motor. If we extend the index finger, middle finger, and the thumb of the left hand in mutually perpendicular directions, aligning the middle finger with the conventional direction of current inside the current and the index finger with the applied magnetic field, then the thumb gives the direction of the force experienced by the conductor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">F = BIL Newtons<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">B = magnetic flux density,<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I = current and<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">L = length of the conductor within the magnetic field.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When armature winding is connected to a DC supply, an electric current sets up in the winding.\u00a0 Permanent magnets or field winding (electromagnetism) provide the magnetic field. In this case, current-carrying armature conductors experience a force due to the magnetic field, according to the principle stated above.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13181\" src=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-2.png\" alt=\"Working Principle Of DC Motor\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1111\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-2.png 1200w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-2-300x278.png 300w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-2-1024x948.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-2-768x711.png 768w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-2-696x644.png 696w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-2-1068x989.png 1068w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">To understand how this acts inside a DC motor, let\u2019s discuss the working of a DC motor in more detail.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">working principle of DC motor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> requires magnetic flux and a current-carrying conductor. Consider a coil carrying DC current through commutator and brushes. These commutator segments rotate freely around their axis. The commutator segment which comes in contact with the left brush gets positive polarity while the right one gets negative polarity. This leads to the flow of current in the coil.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By applying Fleming\u2019s Left-Hand Rule, the conductor on the left side always experiences a force in an upward direction while the conductor on the right side experiences a downward force. Hence, a unidirectional torque is achieved in DC motors.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-13182\" src=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-3.png\" alt=\"Working Principle Of DC Motor\" width=\"1000\" height=\"809\" title=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-3.png 1000w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-3-300x243.png 300w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-3-768x621.png 768w, https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/image-3-696x563.png 696w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Back EMF<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The interaction of the current-carrying conductor with the changing magnetic field produced by the field winding induces an EMF in the conductor. This EMF acts in the opposite direction to the applied voltage. This induced EMF in the motor is known as Back EMF.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The magnitude of back EMF is directly proportional to the speed of the motor. Consider the load on a DC motor is suddenly reduced. In this case, the required torque will be small as compared to the current torque. The speed of the motor will start increasing due to the excess torque. Hence, being proportional to the speed, the magnitude of the back EMF will also increase. With increasing back EMF armature current will start decreasing. With the torque being proportional to the armature current, it will also decrease until it becomes sufficient for the load. Thus, the speed of the motor will regulate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On the other hand, if a DC motor is suddenly loaded, the load will cause a decrease in the speed. Due to a decrease in speed, the back EMF will also decreases which allows more armature current. Due to an increase in armature current, the torque will increase to fulfill the load requirement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, this was everything you needed to know about the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">working principle of DC motors<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. If you enjoy this article, let us know what you think by leaving a reply in the comment section. We will be more than glad to have your viewpoint on the article. Is there any question we can help you through? Feel free to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/sign-up?client_redirect=\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up<\/a> on Linquip where our experts are prepared to provide you with the most professional advice.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Buy Equipment or Ask for a Service<\/b><\/h3>\n<p>By using Linquip RFQ Service, you can expect\u00a0to receive quotations from various suppliers across multiple industries and regions.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/linquip.com\/get-quote?utm_source=blog&amp;utm_medium=content&amp;utm_campaign=product_list&amp;utm_term=product_list&amp;utm_content=rfq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click Here to Request a Quotation From Suppliers and Service Providers<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In our daily lives, we come across a variety of battery-powered electrical gadgets that transform electrical energy into mechanical energy, such as hairdryers, toy vehicles, tiny fans, trimmers, and so on. The electrical component responsible for this action is a Direct Current (DC) motor present inside those gadgets. A DC motor is a type of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":13177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13149"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13149\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37604,"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13149\/revisions\/37604"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.linquip.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}