In this paper a non-contact excitation system based on electromagnets is described. The system aims at exciting cyclically symmetric structures like bladed disks by generating typical engine order-like travelling wave excitations that bladed disks encounter during service. Detailed description of the analytical formulation for the electromagnets sizing, quality assessment and practical implications of the final assembly for the bladed disk excitation are addressed. In particular, the paper proposes an original method to setup the excitation system in order to perform step-sine controlled force measurements. This feature is necessary when non-linear forced response must be measured on bladed disks in order to characterize the dynamic behaviour at different level of excitation. Typical applications of the designed excitation system are two: the first is the study of the effect of a force pattern characterized by a particular engine order on the forced response of mistuned bladed disks, the second is the characterization of intentional non-linear damping source occurring, for instance, for friction phenomena in presence of shrouds or underplatform dampers.