section_path: Externally commutated AC machine/Synchronous motor
section_name: Synchronous motor
paragraph_text: Synchronous motor
  
  A synchronous electric motor is an AC motor. It includes a rotor spinning with coils passing magnets at the same frequency as the AC and produces a magnetic field to drive it. It has zero slip under typical operating conditions. By contrast induction motors must slip to produce torque. One type of synchronous motor is like an induction motor except that the rotor is excited by a DC field. Slip rings and brushes conduct current to the rotor. The rotor poles connect to each other and move at the same speed. Another type, for low load torque, has flats ground onto a conventional squirrel-cage rotor to create discrete poles. Yet another, as made by Hammond for its pre-World War II clocks, and in older Hammond organs, has no rotor windings and discrete poles. It is not self-starting. The clock requires manual starting by a small knob on the back, while the older Hammond organs had an auxiliary starting motor connected by a spring-loaded manually operated switch.
  
  Hysteresis synchronous motors typically are (essentially) two-phase motors with a phase-shifting capacitor for one phase. They start like induction motors, but when slip rate decreases sufficiently, the rotor (a smooth cylinder) becomes temporarily magnetized. Its distributed poles make it act like a permanent magnet synchronous motor. The rotor material, like that of a common nail, stays magnetized, but can be demagnetized with little difficulty. Once running, the rotor poles stay in place; they do not drift.
  
  Low-power synchronous timing motors (such as those for traditional electric clocks) may have multi-pole permanent magnet external cup rotors, and use shading coils to provide starting torque. Telechron clock motors have shaded poles for starting torque, and a two-spoke ring rotor that performs like a discrete two-pole rotor.