Axial flux motors are standard on many mechanical disk drives due to heir extremely low profile, low cogging and high torque at low rpm. One of my tests for my boards for simple-foc is if they can drive such a motor. They were also the standard motor configuration for the old CD walkmans, and low profile floppy and CD and zip drives, whoever is old enough to remember them :). However, I’ve never had access to industrial grade high power axial flux motors. I would guess, since they were designed with 3-phase control in mind, to be a drop-in replacement as far as the control board algorithm is concerned. The board wouldn’t even know it is driving an axial vs radial motor.
Old Floppy drive motor below, 2-pole-pairs, 3-phase.
Here is another close-up
