Tubular permanent magnet actuators are evermore used in demanding industrial and automotive applications. However, these actuators can suffer from large cogging forces, which have a destabilizing effect on the servo control system and compromise position and speed control accuracy. This paper describes a method to analyze cogging force in the design of a tubular slotted PM actuator for industrial applications. A comprehensive analysis is undertaken by considering a pre-established design in coherence with extended 2D finite element analysis. The tubular structure is remodeled into a 2D axial rotating finite element model. This enables the determination and verification of the cogging force associated both with the stator slotting and finite length of the ferromagnetic armature core of a 3-phase slotted tubular brushless permanent-magnet actuator.