Patent ID: 11873064
Assignee: WAVETAMER LLC
Field: Mechanical elements (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  F  G | IPC B  F

Claim 0:
1. A gyroscopic roll stabilizer for a boat, the gyroscopic roll stabilizer comprising:
an enclosure mounted to a gimbal for rotation about a gimbal axis and configured to maintain a below-ambient pressure;
a flywheel assembly including a flywheel and flywheel shaft, with a cavity that is open-ended formed in an end of the flywheel shaft; an inner wall bounding the cavity;
a first bearing for rotatably mounting the flywheel assembly inside the enclosure for rotation about a flywheel axis; the first bearing comprising an inner race affixed to the flywheel shaft proximate the cavity and an outer race rotationally fixed relative to the enclosure;
a motor operative to rotate the flywheel assembly;
a bearing cooling circuit configured to transfer heat away from the inner race of the first bearing by recirculating a cooling fluid; the bearing cooling circuit comprising:
a heat transfer shaft assembly rotationally fixed relative to the flywheel axis and extending from the enclosure into the cavity so as to be spaced from the inner wall bounding the cavity by a gap;
a closed fluid pathway for the cooling fluid that extends through the heat transfer shaft assembly to internally cool the heat transfer shaft assembly;
wherein the closed fluid pathway extends into the cavity inside the heat transfer shaft assembly;

wherein the gyroscopic roll stabilizer is configured to transfer heat away from the inner race of the first bearing to the flywheel shaft, and from there through the heat transfer shaft assembly to the cooling fluid.