Background: The permanent magnet synchronous linear motor is a strongly coupled, nonlinear system. It has been applied in many fields, especially in the field of machining lathes and rail transportation. In order to ensure the permanent magnet synchronous linear motor has good dynamic performance and robustness, sliding mode control is gradually applied to the control system of permanent magnet synchronous linear motor. However, in the traditional sliding mode control, the convergence speed is slow, and the robust performance is poor when the sliding surface is not reached. Objective: The main purpose of this paper is to improve the dynamic performance and robustness of the permanent magnet synchronous linear motor during the process of approaching the sliding surface. Methods: Firstly, the type of nonlinear curve with "small error reduction, large error saturation" is introduced to design a nonlinear integral speed controller with global robustness. Secondly, the gain rate time-varying reaching law is introduced to reduce "chattering". Finally, using a symbolic tangent function instead of a sign function in designing a sliding mode observer reduces fluctuations in load observations. Results: Finally, the correctness and effectiveness of the control method are proved by simulation. Conclusion: The results of the simulation show that the nonlinear integral sliding mode controller based on gain time-varying reaching law is shown to have good global robustness and dynamic performance.