Good news!

I received an email from Wolfrad Bächle and Florian Sieber and they confirmed, that this answer from the support staff was not up to date.

Märklin will prove 5-pole motors for future new developments and in case, the results are better then with a 3-pole, there will 5-pole motors in those models. The decision will be taken for each individual model, therefore, Märklin is not able to tell today, which models will have a 5-pole and which not.

I'm pretty sure, that there will 5-pole motors in the future, too. And not only in those with the old 5-Pole DCM but also new ones.

On Hannover fair, where I spen 5 days as exhibitor, I talked to a mechanical engineer of a big and well known company of motor drives. I asked him about his oppinion about 3-pole and 5-pole motor drives. He told me, that his company has only motors with 5 poles and more. They released some years ago a cheaper motor with 3 poles, but it was unsatisfying and they stopped it. He said, that 3-pole motors have a higher torque ripple and therefore, they are harder to control and the mechanical characteristics are not as good as those from 5-pole motors. On the other side, he mentioned Bühler mortors, which have good characteristics with 3-pole. But he said, there is much efford necessary to get the same characteristiks as a 5-pole motor has.

3rd interesting point was, that he showed me a absolutely new development of an brushless motor with axial mounted permanent magnet and also axial mounted coils. This new motor is much stronger then comparable brushless motors and much smaller then comparable BLDC motors. It is 22x22mm but the controller is bigger because the elektronic is working with PWM modulated current with 200kHz (I'm not so sure, maybe it was 400kHz, much higher than digital decoder).

Greetings,
Moritz

I just search the Märklin product database for loco 37040 and noticed it has a new symbol: a motor with 9 stars.
Great!

The new symbol is also used for both three-pole and five-pole motors. New symbol, but no new transparency.

As I wrote: the new nine-star symbol is used for all locos, even those with three-pole and five-pole engines.

SDS had 9 poles (or 12).
Piko are using 7-pole motors for some of their "Made in Germany" locos.
9 poles are not impossible.

Oh, I was thinking about a new 9-pole DC motor coming soon from Märklin.

So, Märklin react to the critics, that the user expects a 5*-motor when using a 5*-Symbol. But instead of using 5*-Motors they decided to create a new symbol.

I assume, the development of this new symbol was a bit less expensive than to develop a new superb 5-pole motor.

It is a bit like You claim to the baker, that the cream of the cake is not sweet enough and the baker will bring You a new cake - without cream!

My point is that one won't be tempted to find a correlation between 3 pole and 5 pole motors and the symbol if the symbol has neither 5 nor 3 stars on it.

The number 9 is totally irrelevant in this case, and we are definitely not talking about SDS motors, which have a completely different symbol.

I would only expect an improvement if the change in symbol was accomanied with an announcement like:

NEW!

THIS MODEL IS EQUIPPED WITH A NEW 9 POLE MOTOR!!!


I would not expect a major new motor innovation to not be splashed across the New Items brochures. Why wouldn't they?

I don't see any information about the number of poles. If you want to see it that way that's up to you.

An circle with totally amount of stars simulate as motor.
This symbol do shows up total of motors pole.
3 pole
5 pole
9 pole

No matter what Märklin present other terms to counting total as stars.
When Märklin did start with cheap 3 pole motor,customer didn´t know what there was in the new locomotivs with cheap motor and present it as high power motor!
If Märklin did show up symbol with 3 stars,they do present motor as 3 pole.
It´s difference between 3 and 5 pole motor as high power motor.
SDS motor are much more higher power motor.
To identification total pole of the motor,they must show up symbol with motor by total of stars.

I will write a proposal to Märklin, to create this 3-Pole symbol and additionally to use the 5-pole, 7-pole, 9-pole, depending to the real numer of poles!

Yes, I know. They stubbornly use the "1:93.5" symbol also for coaches that are "1:97.5". They continue to use the "1:100" symbol for a set that is "1:87" - years after I informed them about their error.

They don't need my money and I don't need their locos.

Yep. And the five-pole motor of the E 93 looks cheap compared to the five-pole motors they used five years earlier.

Not all five-pole motors are good motors, not all three-pole motors are bad motors.

I want comprehensive product descriptions. The nine-star motor logo is a step in the wrong direction IMHO.

I agree 100% !
But I think Marklin also needs a new owner...

Herr Sieber needs to tear a page out of Neutron Jack Welch's play book. Sack everyone in the management department leaving an empty building like a Neutron bomb. Then repopulate management with entirely new people. The attitudes at Marklin have persisted for decades. It was one of the reasons I left the hobby in the late 80s. This management team is obviously not the same as then, but the attitudes persist. Clearly new management learn bad habits from old management. Like a fish rotting from the head. A complete clean house move will be the only way to make a real change.