Stator for Ball Motors

The invention relates to a stator for ball motors the stator teeth of which consist of strips of a metal sheet.

Ball rotors of spherical type electric motors are characterised by the fact that the rotor is magnetically supported and stabilised and are increasingly gaining in significance. The teeth of such as motor are formed by sheet metal strips which are positioned to extend either radially, that is to say which enclose triangular air spaces between them, and which end at the surface of the spherical air gap and thus require the ends of the strips to be appropriately shaped or they form projections of a spirally wound sheet metal coil which extends in the circumferential direction. Both embodiments require the use of complicated stamping tools to impart the required shape to the strips or to the coil. Embodiments wound in the shape of a spiral coil also necessitate the ends of the coil projections be ground to a contour complimentary in shape to the air gap. The sheet metal wastage for both embodiments is about 40%.

The invention relates to stators with teeth which are not subject to these disadvantages. According to the invention, the teeth extend radially to and parallel to the axis of rotation of the rotor where each tooth comprises a plurality of individual rectangular shaped adjacent strips where the width of adjacent strips decreases radially inwardly towards the center of the stator. This makes it possible to cut the strips of sheet metal required for the teeth from an endless strip without wastage. The magnetic return path is provided via discs yokes which have stepped recesses and thus create a continuous magnetic transition from the strips of sheet metal with different extent and length in azimuth to the magnetic air gap.

Thus the invention consists in that rectangular strips of sheet metal which have been produced by wasteless shearing and which have different widths and lengths are combined to form teeth and are joined to each other at one end by means of sheet metal discs having stepped recesses and at the other end terminate near the surface of the spherical magnetic gap. Accordingly, the strips of sheet metal have increasingly greater widths and greater lengths, when viewed radially outwardly from the center of the stator. In order to match the sheet metal parts to the spherical shape, the ends of the strips can have bevels produced by rolling or connect at their ends to pole shoes having a stepped surface.

The invention will be described with the aid of figures, in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan sectional view of a stator constructed according to the invention;

FIG. 1A is a side sectional view of the stator of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2 is a plan sectional view of a further form of a stator constructed according to the invention having return path elements or yokes of decreasing diameter;

FIG. 2A is a side sectional view of a portion of the stator of FIG. 2;

FIG. 3 is a plan sectional view of a still further form of a stator constructed according to the invention;

FIG. 3A is a side sectional view of the stator of FIG. 3;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a pole shoe element in the form of a ring;

FIG. 4A is a side sectional view of the pole shoe element of FIG. 4 applied to a stator;

FIG. 5 is a partial side sectional view of a stator constructed according to the invention in which the ends of strips forming a stator tooth are beveled;

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a sheet of material illustrating the dimensions of individual strips sheared from the sheet; and,

FIG. 6A is a side edge view of a strip sheared from the sheet of FIG. 6.

FIG. 1 shows the plan view and longitudinal section of a stator according to the invention having a plurality of teeth 12 which extend radially and parallel with respect to the center line of the stator. The return-path individual rectangular shaped strips 1 have stepped recesses 2 into which the strips 3, 4, 5 and 6 have been pressed in accordance with the direction of the arrow 7 to form a stator tooth 12. As shown, the strips of each tooth decrease in width in a direction radially inwardly of the center line of the stator. Each tooth is is connected at one end to an isolating cap 8 by a pole shoe 9 of soft iron the concave surface 10 of which follows the cap 8 whereas the convex surface 11 is constructed to be stepped to conform to the stepped ends of the strips 3-6.

FIG. 2 and FIG. 2A shows a different form of the return-path sheets 20, 22, 24 and 26 which have decreasing diameters so that the return-path sheet 20, which can also consist of a plurality of thinner sheets, has 4 steps 21 whereas the return-path sheet 22 has only 3 steps, the return-path sheet 24 has only 2 steps 25 and return path sheet 26 has only 1 step 27.

FIG. 3 and FIG. 3A shows a similar arrangement in which the return-path sheets 30, 31, 32 and 33 are constructed to be circularly cylindrical and the strips 34, 35, 36 and 37 are bent along their width in such a way that they follow the contour of the return-path discs 30, 31, 32 and 33.

FIG. 4 and FIG. 4A shows a pole shoe element in which all pole shoes are formed of a ring 40 in which, on its convex side, steps 41 are arranged, for example by turning, in which arrangement the poles 42 are separated from one another by radial slots 43.

FIG. 5 shows an embodiment in which the steel-plate strips 50, 51, 52, and 53 at their ends facing the cap 8 have bevels which largely follow the contour of the cap. These bevels 54 and 55 can be generated by oblique shearing but they can also be produced by rolling in which case the inclined surfaces then will be located on circular arcs, seen in cross-section.

FIG. 6A shows a sheet metal strip which is shown with exaggerated thickness and in which the bevels 60 and 61 have been generated by rolling. FIG. 6 shows that cutting a sheet of strip material 64 along the cutting line 62 produces two strips which are then cut apart along the markings 63 to form a plurality of rectangular individual strips 65.