“…This is one of the reasons permanent magnet actuators to be increasingly employed for different applications (Furlani, 2001;Campbell, 1994;Boldea and Nasar, 1997). Among these applications are the electromagnetic valve actuators (Fauri and Sonato, 1991;Sonato and Zollino, 1997;Ahn et al, 2005;Clark et al, 2005; The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www.emeraldinsight.com/0332-1649.htm Rens et al, 2005;Kim and Chang, 2007). When static and dynamic characteristics of linear actuators are modelled, the most used method for magnetic field analysis is the finite element method (Fauri and Sonato, 1991;Sonato and Zollino, 1997;Ahn et al, 2005;Clark et al, 2005;Rens et al, 2005;Kim and Chang, 2007;Li et al, 2005;Nakata et al, 2007;Krebs et al, 2007).…”