Rotor windings for DC motor

This application claims the benefit of Chinese Patent Application Serial No.201310035210.X filed on Jan. 30, 2013. The entire content of the aforementioned patent application is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes.

This invention generally relates to an electric motor, and particularly to a DC (direct current) motor.

Generally, a DC motor includes a stator and a rotor mounted in the stator. The stator has multiple magnetic poles. The rotor includes a rotor core having multiple teeth, a commutator having multiple segments, and a rotor winding consists of multiple coils wound on the teeth of the rotor core and connected to the segments of the commutator. The stator further includes at least one pair of brushes for contacting the segments of the commutator, thus feeding power to the rotor winding. A pair of brushes includes a positive brush and a negative brush.

A traditional six-pole nine-slot eighteen-segment motor may have eighteen coils. Each coil is wound around a single tooth of the rotor core, with two terminals connected to two adjacent segments. Since the rotor core has nine teeth, each tooth has two coils wound around it. The rotor winding of the traditional motor forms six parallel branches connected between the positive brush and the negative brush, and each branch has three coils connected in series. Since each of the coils is formed by a large number of turns, the winding process of is time-consuming, thus resulting in high cost and slow motor manufacturing process.

Further, as the number of the turns of each coil is large, the coils should be wound by wires with small diameters, e.g., 0.6 millimeter (mm) or less, which are weak and are prone to be broken during operation of the motor.

Accordingly, it would be advantageous to reduce the winding process time of the motor and improve the reliability of the motor.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a DC motor comprising a stator and a rotor rotatably mounted to the stator. The stator has 2P magnetic poles, wherein P is an integer greater than 1. The rotor comprises a rotor shaft, a rotor core and a commutator fixed to the shaft. The rotor core has a plurality of teeth defining m×P slots therebetween, wherein m is an odd integer greater than 1. The commutator comprises k×m×P segments, wherein k is an integer selected from 1 and 2. A rotor winding is received in the slots of the rotor core and connected to the segments of the commutator. The rotor winding comprises n layers of windings, wherein n is an integer smaller than P. Each layer of windings comprises k×m winding units and each winding unit comprises P coils directly connected in series. In some embodiments, the segments comprise a first set of segments, a second set of segments and a third set of segments, each segment in the first set is directly connected with n winding units, each segment in the second set is directly connected with 2n winding unit, and each segment in the third set is directly connected with none of the winding units.

In some embodiments, the rotor winding is formed by winding a single continuous wire without cutting the wire until the rotor winding is formed.

In some embodiments, each winding unit is connected to a first segment and a second segment, and the second segment is under the same magnetic polarity as another segment adjacent to the first segment.

In some embodiments, k is 2 and n is 1; and each tooth has two coils wound around it which belong to two different winding units.

In some embodiments, k is 2 and n is 2; and each tooth has four coils wound around it, which belong to four winding units. In some embodiments, of the four different winding units, two winding units are connected in parallel between a pair of segments, and the other two winding units connected in parallel between another pair of segments. In some embodiments, the rotor comprises a plurality of equalizers, and each equalizer links a group of segments under the same magnetic polarity.

In some embodiments, each coil is wound around a single tooth, and the P coils of each winding unit are wound on P teeth under the same magnetic polarity.

In some embodiments, the stator comprises at least one pair of brushes slidably contacting the segments of the commutator, each pair of brushes comprises a positive brush and a negative brush; and each layer of windings forms two parallel branches electrically connected between the at least one pair of brushes.

In some embodiments, n is 1; and the rotor winding is formed by a wire having a diameter in the range of 0.9 mm to 1.1 mm.

In some embodiments, n is 2; and the rotor winding is formed by two wires, and each wire has a diameter in the range of 0.6 mm to 0.8 mm.

In some embodiments, P is 3 and m is 3.

The drawings illustrate the design and utility of embodiments, in which similar elements are referred to by common reference numerals. The drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. In order to better appreciate how the above-recited and other advantages and objects are obtained, a more specific description of the embodiments will be rendered which are illustrated in accompanying drawings. These drawings depict only exemplary.

FIG. 1 illustrates a motor according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 illustrates a rotor of the motor shown in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 3 is a winding schematic of the rotor shown in FIG. 2 ;

FIG. 4 is a winding table illustrating the connection relationships between rotor winding, rotor teeth and segments of the motor shown in FIG. 1 ;

FIG. 5 illustrates electrical connection relationships of the rotor winding, segments and brushes of the motor shown in FIG. 1 ; and

FIG. 6 illustrates electrical connection relationships of the rotor winding, segments and brushes of a motor according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 , a motor 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a stator 12 and a rotor 14 rotatably mounted in the stator 12 . The stator 12 includes a housing 71 having an opening, a plurality of magnets 72 fixed to an inner wall of the housing 71 , an end cap 76 mounted to the opening of the housing 71 . Two bearings 74 , 75 are respectively mounted to the housing 71 and the end cap 76 for supporting the rotor 14 . The magnets 72 form P pairs of magnetic poles of the stator 12 , wherein P is an integer greater than 1 . Thus, the stator 12 has 2P poles. A plurality of brushes (labeled as B+ and B− in FIGS. 5 and 6 ) are attached to the end cap 76 and electrically connected with a power source to provide power to the rotor 14 .

The rotor 14 includes a rotor shaft 81 , a rotor core 85 and a commutator 83 fixed to the rotor shaft 81 . The rotor 14 is mounted in the stator 12 with the rotor shaft 81 rotatably supported by the bearings 74 and 75 of the stator 12 , whereby the rotor 14 is rotatable relative to the stator 12 .

The rotor core 85 has in m×P teeth, wherein in is an odd integer greater than 1. Each two adjacent teeth of the rotor core 85 are spaced from each other to define a winding slot there between. Therefore, the rotor core 85 defines m×P winding slots between the teeth.

The commutator 83 has k×(m×P) conductive segments, wherein k is an integer selected from 1 and 2. The commutator segments slidably contact the brushes of the stator 12 , to receive power from the brushes.

In one specific embodiment, the magnets 72 of the stator 12 form six magnetic poles, i.e., three pairs of magnetic poles. The rotor core 85 has nine teeth defining nine winding slots, and the commutator 83 has eighteen segments. That is, P=3, m=3, and k=2.

A rotor winding 87 is wound on the teeth of the rotor core 85 and connected to the segments of the commutator 83 . The rotor winding 87 includes a plurality of coils each of which has multiple turns wound on a single tooth in one direction. In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the number of the coils is equal to the number of the segments, and is represented by k×(m×P). In one specific embodiment, the rotor winding 87 includes eighteen coils.

FIG. 3 is a developed winding diagram illustrating the rotor 14 shown in FIG. 2 , with the components of the rotor 14 laid out linearly. The teeth T 1 -T 9 , the commutator segments K 1 -K 18 , and the winding coils C 1 -C 9 and C 1 ′-C 9 ′ are shown schematically. The segments k 1 -K 18 of the commutator 83 are laid flat along the top row. The Segment K 1 is repeated at the front of the row and the segment K 18 is repeated at the end of the row for illustrative purposes. The teeth T 1 -T 9 are laid flat along the bottom row beneath the commutator segments K 1 -K 18 . The tooth T 9 is repeated at the end of the row for illustrative purposes. The coils C 1 -C 9 are shown wound clockwise around the teeth T 1 -T 9 and the coils C 1 ′-C 9 ′ are shown wound counter-clockwise around the teeth T 1 -T 9 . As shown in FIG. 3 , each tooth Tn has two coils wound around it, namely, coils Cn and Cn′, wherein n is a number between 1 and 9.

The commutator 83 has six equalizers E 1 -E 6 , and each equalizer links together or short circuit a group of commutator segments which are under the same magnetic polarity. As is used in the specification and the appended claims, the segments under the same magnetic polarity means that the segments are angularly separated from each other by the angular distance between magnetic poles of same polarity.

The eighteen commutator segments K 1 -K 18 are divided into six groups, and the segments in each group are electrically connected together by a corresponding one of the equalizers E 1 -E 6 , thereby allowing the motor 10 to operate even though the number of brushes are less than the number of stator poles 2 P, while normally one would expect the number of brushes is equal to the number of stator poles. In accordance with a specific embodiment, there are three commutator segments in each group evenly spaced from each other along a circumference of the commutator 83 .

In accordance with the specific embodiment the teeth T 1 -T 9 are sorted into three groups, and each group includes three teeth under the same magnetic polarity. That is, the teeth of each group are angularly separated from each other by the angular distance between poles of same magnetic polarity. As such, the number of teeth in each group is equal to the number of poles of same magnetic polarity which is represented by P. The teeth in each group are equally spaced along a circumference of the rotor core 85 . In particular, the teeth T 1 , T 4 and T 7 belong to a first group. The teeth T 2 , T 5 and T 8 belong to a second group. The teeth T 3 , T 6 and T 9 belong to a third group.

Referring also to FIG. 4 , the winding process in accordance with one specific embodiment is described herein below. Winding starts with connecting one end of an armature wire to a commutator segment, e.g., K 1 . The wire is then wound around each tooth of the first group in sequence in a clockwise (CW) direction. More specifically, the wire is wound CW around the tooth T 1 to form coil C 1 , then wound CW around tooth T 7 to form coil C 7 , and wound CW around tooth T 4 to form coil C 4 . The wire is then connected to segment K 8 . Therefore, the coils C 1 , C 7 and C 4 are directly connected in series, and are collectively referred as a winding unit WA.

Then the wire is wound around each tooth of the third group in sequence in a counter-clockwise (CCW) direction continuously from the segment K 8 without cutting the wire. More specifically, the wire is wound CCW around the tooth T 3 to form coil C 3 ′, then wound CCW around tooth T 6 to form coil C 6 ′, and wound CCW around tooth T 9 to form coil C 9 ′, and then the wire is connected to segment K 15 . Therefore, a winding unit WB′ is formed by the coils C 3 ′, C 6 ′ and C 9 ′ which are directly connected in series.

Then the wire is wound CW around each tooth of the second group continuously from the segment K 15 without cutting the wire. More specifically, the wire is wound CW around teeth T 8 , T 5 and T 2 in sequence to form coils C 8 , C 5 and C 2 in turn, and then the wire is connected to the segment K 4 , thereby forming a winding unit WC.

Then the wire is wound CCW around each tooth of the first group continuously from the segment K 4 without cutting the wire. Specifically, the wire is wound CCW around teeth T 1 , T 4 and T 7 in sequence to form coils C 1 ′, C 4 ′ and C 7 ′ in turn, and then the wire is connected to the segment K 11 , thereby forming a winding unit WA′.

Then the wire is wound CW around each tooth of the third group continuously from the segment K 11 without cutting the wire. Specifically, the wire is wound CW around teeth T 6 , T 3 and T 9 in sequence to form coils C 6 , C 3 and C 9 in turn, and then connected to the segment K 18 , thereby forming a winding unit WB.

Then the wire is wound CCW around each tooth of the second group continuously from the segment K 18 without cutting the wire. Specifically, the wire is wound CCW around teeth T 8 , T 2 and T 5 in sequence to form coils C 8 ′, C 2 ′ and C 5 ′ in turn. Then the wire is terminated on the segment K 7 such that a winding unit WC′ is formed and the windings process is finished. Therefore, the rotor winding 87 is wound by a single continuous wire which is not cut until the winding process is finished.

As described above, the rotor winding 87 of the motor 10 has six winding units, and each winding unit has three coils. In this embodiment, the winding units are different from each other either in the teeth that the winding units are wound around, or in the directions the winding units are wound. Such a rotor winding is referred as a single layer winding. It can be understood that, if a rotor winding has multiple pairs of winding units with each pair including two winding units wound around the same teeth in the same direction, the rotor winding is referred as a double layer winding.

It can be noted that, for rotor 14 having a single layer winding 87 in the present invention, the number of coils of each winding unit is equal to the number of the teeth of each group, which is represented by P. The number of the winding units is thus represented by k×m.

In the present invention, each winding unit is directly connected to only two segments, one of which is linked to another segment adjacent to the other one of the two segments by a corresponding equalizer. For example, the winding unit WA is connected to the segments K 1 and K 8 . The segment K 8 is linked by equalizer E 2 to the segment K 2 which is adjacent to the segment K 1 . Therefore, it can be understood that the winding unit WA can be alternatively connected to K 1 and K 14 , which is also linked to the segment K 2 by the equalizer E 2 . Likewise, the segment K 1 is linked by equalizer E 1 to the segment K 7 which is adjacent to the segment K 8 . Therefore, it can be understood that the winding unit WA can be alternatively connected to K 8 and K 13 , which is also linked to the segment K 1 by the equalizer E 1 . In other words, each winding unit in the rotor winding 87 can be directly connected to two segments belong to two groups, and the segments in one of the two groups are adjacent to corresponding segments in the other group.

As shown in FIG. 3 and described in FIG. 4 , the segments are sorted into three sets or categories. The first set or category includes the segments K 1 and K 7 that are directly connect to one winding unit. The second set or category includes segments K 8 , K 15 , K 4 , K 11 , and K 18 that are directly connected to two winding units wound in opposite directions. The third set or category includes remaining segments K 2 , K 3 , K 5 , K 6 , K 9 , K 10 , K 12 , K 13 , K 14 , K 16 , and K 17 that not directly connected to any winding unit.

It can be noted that, two winding units that are wound on the same group of teeth are wound in opposite directions. Namely, one of such winding units is wound in clockwise direction, and the other winding unit is wound in counter-clockwise direction. The two winding units are connected to different segments. Therefore, the two winding units wound on the same group of teeth are connected to four segments.

FIG. 5 illustrates the electrical connection relationship of the rotor winding 87 , the segments of the commutator 83 , and the brushes of the motor 10 . The motor 10 has two pairs of brushes, each pair includes a positive brush represented by B+ and a negative brush represented by B−. As shown in FIG. 5 , the rotor winding 87 of the motor 10 forms two parallel branches connected between the positive brushes and negative brushes. Each branch includes nine coils connected in series, which is three times the number of coils in each branch of the traditional six-pole, nine slot and eighteen-segment motor.

As is known to all in the art, the performance of the motor 10 according to the present invention will be substantially equal to that of a traditional motor if the total turns of all the coils in each branch are the same in the two motors. Therefore, the number of turns of each coil of the motor 10 in the present embodiment can be one third (⅓) of the number of turns of each coil of the traditional motor while substantially maintaining the same level of performance. Due to the significantly reduction of the turns of each coil, the winding time of the motor 10 in the present embodiment is reduced significantly, and the coils can be wound by a wire with a diameter larger than that of the wire used in the traditional motor. For example, the wire used in the present invention may have a diameter in the range of 0.9 millimeter (mm) to 1.1 mm, wherein 1.0 mm is preferred. As such, the coils of the motor 10 in the present invention are stronger than those of the traditional motor, and thus the motor 10 of the present invention is more reliable than the traditional motor.

FIG. 6 illustrates the electrical connection relationship of the rotor winding 87 , the commutator segments, and the brushes of a motor according to another embodiment of the present invention. The rotor winding 87 shown in FIG. 6 differs from the above embodiment in that it has double layers, i.e., a first winding layer and a second winding layer identical to each other. More specifically, each group of teeth has two identical winding units wound around them in the same direction, and the two winding units are connected to the same pair of segments. This rotor winding 87 can be achieved by winding two wires simultaneously as though the two wires are considered as a single wire like that used in the motor 10 of the above embodiment. In that case, the first winding layer and the second winding layer are formed simultaneously. Alternatively, the rotor winding 87 can be formed by winding the first winding layer and the second winding layer in sequence.

In this embodiment, the number of the winding units is double of the number of the winding units of the above embodiment, while the number of coils of each winding unit remains the same. Thus, the total number of the coils in this embodiment is double of the total number of the coils in the above embodiment. The total number of the coils is represented by n×k×m×P (n represents the number of layers of the winding).

As shown in FIG. 6 , the rotor winding 87 forms four parallel branches connected between the positive brushes and the negative brushes. In the present embodiment, the winding wire may have a diameter in the range of 0.6 mm to 0.8 mm, wherein 0.7 mm will be preferred. Since the first winding layer and the second winding layer are electrically connected in parallel. If one of the winding units in the first layer is open circuited, the current is still conducted by the second winding layer in the other identical winding unit. Therefore, the motor 10 is more reliable and safer compared to the traditional motor. It should be pointed out that, a coil is said to be open circuited or open when the wire forming the coil is broken such that current can not flow through the coil from one segment to another segment.

In the embodiment, each group of teeth has four winding units wound around it, of which two winding units are identical and collectively connected to a pair of segments, and the other two winding units are identical and collectively connected to another pair of segments.

Although the invention is described by embodiments of six-pole, nine-slot commutated motor, it can be understood that the prevent invention can also be applicant to another commutated motor with the pole number and slot number different from those disclosed in the embodiments, such as four-pole, six-slot commutated motors.

In the description and claims of the present application, each of the verbs “comprise”, “include”, “contain” and “have”, and variations thereof, are used in an inclusive sense, to specify the presence of the stated item but not to exclude the presence of additional items.