Abstract:
The disclosed method produces a stator or rotor having a distributed wave winding, in which the wires are associated in pairs lying with straight segments in the same slots. Head portions of two successive straight segments of each wire of a pair protrude from opposite ends of slots. For forming two wire groups, a plurality of coil windings are simultaneously created by winding up n parallel wires with intermediate spacing onto a striplike former that is rotatable about its longitudinal axis. From each of the parallel wires one straight segment and one end turn are doubled by being bent over with the wire length of a head portion, and then head portions are formed and the wires interlaced. Finally, the two wire groups are wound onto one another and thereby intertwined with one another, and then introduced as an entire intertwined wave winding strand into the stator or rotor slots.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention relates to a method for producing a stator or rotor, i.e., electrical elements, for electrical machines, having a distributed wave winding, the wires of which wave winding are shaped continuously in wavelike fashion into straight segments introduced into the slots of the stator or rotor and head portions, each head portion joining two adjacent straight segments of one wire and protruding past an end face of the stator or rotor, in which the head portions of wires, associated in pairs occupying the same slots, protrude from opposite ends of the slots receiving two successive straight segments of the associated wires. 
     The invention further relates to a stator or rotor (electrical element) of an electrical machine having slots whose width is designed for the reception of a single row of straight wire segments of rectangular cross section that are oriented parallel with their radially inner and outer side faces, and having a distributed wave winding that has two wire groups, each with n interlaced wires, shaped continuously in wavelike fashion with straight segments and gable-shaped head portions, in which the wires of one wire group are associated with the wires of the other group in pairs, in such a manner that the two wires of each pair are located in the same slots and their head portions join opposite ends of successive straight segments located in the same slots. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention is based on a method described in US Patent Application 2006/0022547 (now U.S. Pat. No. 7,703,192) and the stator or rotor produced by this method which published application is hereby incorporated by reference. It provides that a distributed wave winding is assembled from two separately interlaced wire groups of preferably rectangular winding wires, in which each group is created by winding on a striplike flat former, by the intersection of the wires in the head portion regions, and by ensuing flat pressing. The two winding halves pressed flat separately in one ply at the end lie in a defined plane each in the stator or rotor slots, without being intertwined/interlaced with one another. The respective winding wires, associated in pairs and located in the same slots, of the two strands are joined only by soldering on one end. Although a double or two-ply layer formed of both winding halves located one above the other is supposed to have the thickness of twice the wire thickness, at certain points three wires intersect at such close spacing that a certain lack of uniformity in thickness occurs, and this deficiency increases when there are a plurality of layers. 
     Distributed wave windings in which all the winding wires are interlaced with one another to form one coherent strand are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,750,581 B2, 6,759,779 B2, 6,826,823 B2 and 6,862,797 B2. No production method is disclosed, but if, as is normally desired, the prefabricated wave winding shall extend multiple times about the circumference of a stator or rotor and thus form a plurality of layers, in those areas where the transition from one layer to the next takes place, an irregularity must be incorporated into the strand of interlaced wires, making production by machine more difficult. 
     From European Patent Disclosure EP 1 469 579 A1, it is furthermore known to produce a distributed wave winding for a stator or rotor by winding all the winding wires that form a two-ply layer parallel to one another onto a former of hexagonal cross section in a single winding operation, the former having two parallel side faces, which are provided with transverse slots and are joined on both long edges by gable-shaped end faces. The winding operation thus proceeds helically along the former, but the inclination is limited to the unslotted, gable-shaped end faces, while the winding wires in the slots of the parallel side faces extend without a slope, transversely to the longitudinal center axis of the former. Each time the parallel winding wires are wound about the former, some of the wires are placed in slots located diametrically opposite other slots that have been occupied earlier during the same winding operation. Once a certain number of windings has been reached, the multi-part former is reduced in its cross section and pulled out of the coil that has been formed. After that, the coil of hexagonal cross section is pressed flat in two plies, and the straight wire segments created on both side faces of the former are pressed against one another. 
     In this last-described winding method, the wires are placed continuously, with a constant inclination, onto the gable-shaped end faces of the former. Because of the residual intrinsic elasticity, however, they do not rest flat there, nor are they pressed from outside against these faces, and they are not retained in slots. The bending of the wires about the edges that define the gable-shaped end faces, in conjunction with the bending for attaining the axial inclination of the wire windings, causes torsion of the rectangular wires throughout the area of the head portion, which proves harmful in the phase between when the coil is removed from the former and the flat pressing is done. Normally, in this known winding method, the outer side face of a wire, resting on a side face of the former, should also be located on the outside over the entire length of a head portion. However, both the torsional stress in the wire and the bending edges extending obliquely to its longitudinal edges cause twisting about the longitudinal axis of the wire and bends, so that upon the flat pressing, the wire portions located one above the other or intersecting one another are in part pressed with their side edges instead of with the side faces, against one another, and the parallel course of the wires in the head portion region is not assured, either. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is therefore the object of the invention to make a stator or rotor of the type defined at the outset available that has an entirely intertwined/interlaced, distributed wave winding with a uniform wire course and a minimal two-ply layer thickness, in the head portions as well, and to make a suitable production method available for such a stator or rotor. 
     The above object is attained in terms of the method in that for forming two wire groups, initially interlaced separately and then intertwined/interlaced with one another, in each case
         a plurality of coil windings are simultaneously created by winding up n parallel wires, paid out from a wire guide, with intermediate spacing onto a striplike former that is rotatable about its longitudinal axis, in that   for a stator or rotor having a number of slots divisible by 2 n, that are to be occupied by the wave winding, in alternation in a work step A, from each of the parallel wires on the former having a predetermined intermediate spacing corresponding to the spacing of the stator or rotor slots, one straight segment and one end turn, doubled by being bent over and having the wire length of a head portion are created; and   in a work step B, the straight segments formed in work step A, while maintaining their intermediate spacing, together with the adjoining first end of the respective associated end turns, and the wire guide, together with the second end of these end turns are displaced axially along the axis of rotation of the former relative to one another by n times the predetermined intermediate spacing in a predetermined direction and as a result head portions are formed;   until after multiple repetition of work steps A and B, the straight segments for the last n stator and/or rotor slots are also created on the former;   and then the two individually prefabricated interlaced wire groups are wound onto one another in an axial relative position in which the straight segments created from associated wires on opposite sides of the striplike former are made to coincide, and in this state are introduced as an entire coherent wave winding into the stator or rotor slots in the direction transversely to their longitudinal extent.       

     The invention offers the advantage that the wave winding can be assembled from two wire groups that are to be prefabricated each in one ply, with straight segments offset transversely from the central plane, and can be interlaced with all the wires. The head portions alternatingly jump from a radially inner ply to a radially outer ply and back again, and thus rest obliquely to the circumferential direction of the stator or rotor. Nevertheless, the wires are bent only locally at the transitions from the straight segments to the head portions and at the apexes thereof, specifically preferably only about bending axes extending longitudinally of the strand and transversely thereto. In this way, rectangular wires too can be aligned uniformly in the head portions, so that after assembly, they point radially outward and inward with diametrically opposed side faces. By the deformation at the apex of the head portions, which has the effect that in top view on one side of the apex one side face and on the other side the diametrically opposed side face of the rectangular wire forms the outer face of the head portion, the wire becomes plastically deformed and after that maintains its shape. 
     In a preferred feature of the invention, each of the two wire groups that are interlaced separately has from two to five times as many straight segments as the stator or rotor has slots, and after both wire groups have been intertwined by winding upon one another the combined strand has a continuous structure and pattern between the respective second and next-to-last straight segments, such that the head portions of two associated wires that are intended for the same slots intersect, upon each progression from one slot to the next, in projection onto a plane located transversely to the longitudinal direction of the slots. This method is favorable from a manufacturing standpoint, since the wave winding can be continuously uniformly shaped, without the discontinuity shown for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 6,750,581 B2 at the transition from one two-ply layer to the next. 
     Normally, each wire group interlaced separately will be pressed flat individually with n wires, and then the two wire groups will be wound one above the other. However, the possibility also exists of first winding the two wire groups, which have been prefabricated as flat as possible, one above the other and then to press them flat while in mutual contact. 
     A stator or rotor produced by the method described above is also provided. It is distinguished by a precisely parallel orientation not only of the side faces radially adjoining one another of the straight segments but also of the head portions at the intersections, as well as by their precise positioning, so that the thickness measured in the radial direction of a two-ply wire layer is no greater in the region of the head portions than in a slot. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Below, one exemplary embodiment of the invention is described in further detail in conjunction with the drawings. 
         FIG. 1  shows two individually prefabricated, wave-shaped wire groups interlaced separately, in a side view, each comprising three wires, for a distributed wave winding of a stator having 42 slots, as well as a side view of a wave winding, assembled by intertwining the two wire groups by winding them onto one another, in the flatly spread-out state; 
         FIG. 2  is an end view of one of the wire groups of  FIG. 1 , on a larger scale; 
         FIG. 3  is a side view of a head portion of one of the wire groups of  FIG. 1 , on a greatly enlarged scale; 
         FIG. 4  is an axial top view onto a head portion of one of the wire groups of  FIG. 1 , after being introduced into a stator, on a greatly enlarged scale; 
         FIGS. 5 and 6  are top views on the face ends of a stator having 42 slots after the insertion of one of three pairs of wires of a distributed wave winding that extends two times around the circumference and forms two double layers; 
         FIG. 7  is a winding diagram of a three-layer distributed wave winding of a pair of wires for a stator with 42 slots, in a developed view; and 
         FIG. 8  is the winding diagram of the distributed wave winding of  FIG. 7  after the introduction, in three two-ply layers, into a stator. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     As shown in  FIG. 1 , first, two wire groups  10  and  12 , comprising parallel wires formed and interlaced with one another, are produced, which are then put together and intertwined by winding onto one another to form a wave winding identified in its entirety by reference numeral  14 , which is introduced into a stator or rotor, i.e., an electrical element for an electrical device hereafter exemplarily depicted as stator  30 . 
     The two wire groups  10  and  12 , in this example, match identically, but may also have differently shaped head portions. They each comprise three parallel wires  15 ,  15 ′ whose beginnings are marked  16  and  16 ′ and whose end is marked  18  and  18 ′, respectively. In each of the two wire groups  10 ,  12 , the three wires  15 ,  15 ′ extend in wavelike fashion between their respective beginning and end and in the process form rectilinear straight segments  20 , to be introduced into the stator or rotor slots, and head portions  22  which join two adjacent straight segments  20  of the same wire at the ends. In the finished state of a stator, the head portions  22  protrude past the face ends of the stator lamination packet. 
     Each wire group  10  and  12  is shaped in wavelike fashion, in that the three wires  15 ,  15 ′ as described in US Patent Application 2006/0022547, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,703,192 (see especially  FIGS. 10A-10I ), are wound simultaneously and parallel to one another onto a rotationally drivable flat or striplike former  32  shown in  FIG. 2  (or see similar former  20  in the above noted reference), which also includes two retractable bolts (see #26 in the above noted reference) that form the head portions  22 . During the winding motion, which is done with interruptions (periods when no winding occurs), the wire guide (see #30 in the above noted reference) is axially fixed relative to the former, but each time the wires  15  have been guided about one of the aforementioned bolts and as a result the bend at the apex of three end turns, which thereafter become head portions  22 , has been shaped, the wire guide and the former, after the retraction of the bolt, are axially displaced relative to one another, and thereby the legs of the end turns are spread apart to form the head portions  22 . It can be seen from  FIG. 1  that in the head portions  22  the legs now are in an intersecting or crossing over position. It can also be seen from  FIG. 1 , that the first wire  15  of the upper head portions crosses over the two other parallel wires  15 , and the middle wire  15  crosses over the third wire  15 . The situation is a reverse in the lower head portions  22 . There, the third wire  15  crosses over the first and second wires  15 , and the middle wire  15  crosses over the first wire  15 . In this way, after being stripped from the flat former  32 , the three wires  15  are interlaced with one another and can be handled as a single coherent wire group or strand  10  and  12 , respectively. 
     The flat, striplike former  32 , for reasons of strength, has a certain thickness. But in the case of the wave winding to be produced in accordance with US Patent Application 2006/0022547, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,703,192, all the straight segments  20  of one wire group  10  or  12  should be located in the same flat plane. This is desired so that later in the radial slots of a cylindrical stator or rotor, the straight segments will be located at the same radius. To achieve this the wire groups  10 ,  12 , after the wavelike shaping on the former  32 , are pressed as flat as possible into a common plane. But normally this flat pressing is not entirely successful, since the intersecting (cross over) points of the wires in the head portions  22  are an obstacle to-it this flat pressing. 
     In the known method of US Patent Application 2006/0022547, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,703,192, the two flat-pressed wire groups  10  and  12  are simply placed one above the other in the longitudinal direction with the offset shown of their beginnings  16 ,  16 ′ and ends  18 ,  18 ′. In this simple layering they are introduced in the manner described for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 7,281,312 B2 and shown in  FIGS. 8 through 11  thereof into a stator or rotor that has slots open radially inward. 
     However, the present invention is distinguished over this prior art in that the wire groups  10  and  11 , normally also after a flat-pressing operation, are intertwined/interlaced with one another in the relative position shown in  FIG. 1  by intertwined wave winding  14 . This intertwining of wire groups  10  and  12  is accomplished by being wrapped around one another, so that the entire wave winding  14  is one coherent wire group or strand, which can then in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 7,281,312 B2 be introduced into a stator lamination packet. Winding the two wire groups  10  and  12  around one another is necessary in order to make respective paired straight segments  20  of the wire groups  10  and  12  coincide. For instance, the first three straight segments  20  in FIG.  1 —beginning at the left—of the wire group  10  that have been shaped on the back side of the flat former  32  are made to coincide with the fourth, fifth and sixth straight segments of the wire group  12 . These three last-mentioned straight segments have been shaped on the front side of the flat former  32 . Once the straight segments  4  through  6  of the wire group  12  have been placed on the straight segments  1  through  3  of the wire group  10 , the wire group  10  must be placed onto the top side of the wire group  12  by means of a winding step, in order to place the straight segments  4  through  6  of the wire group  10  onto the straight segments  7  through  9  of the wire group  12 . Next, by a further winding motion, which is very easily done by hand, but can also be done using a very flat former, the wire group  12  is placed over the wire group  10 , in order to place the straight segments  10  through  12  of the wire group  12 , shaped on the front side of the former onto the straight segments  7  through  9 , counted from the left, of the wire group  10  that have been shaped on the back side of the former. 
     It can easily be seen that after all the straight segments of the wire groups  10  and  12  have been superimposed on one another (intertwined), an optimally thin two-ply layer of the wave winding  14  is obtained. If the straight segments  20 , shaped in accordance with  FIG. 2  initially with a certain intermediate spacing corresponding to the thickness of the former  32 , have been moved closer together by pressing the wire groups  10  and  12  flat enough, they are then directly side by side, with no spacing between them, as shown in the end view of  FIG. 2 . In the intertwined/interlaced state of the two wire groups  10  and  12 , the result is then a two-ply layer, which is precisely as thick as two straight wire segments  20  located flat one above the other. Since the head portions  22  extend obliquely between the two plies, this two-ply layer is no thicker, even in the region of the head portions. 
     The wave winding selected as the exemplary embodiment in  FIG. 1  is intended for a stator  30  having 42 slots. It is understood that by the same production method, a distributed wave winding with two wire groups each with only two wires, but also with for instance from four to eight or even more wires per group, can be produced. It is recommended that, as shown in  FIG. 1 , the two wire groups  10  and  12  be superimposed offset in the longitudinal direction by the number of wires of each group and that the wire ends  18  and  18 ′ be connected electrically to one another, so that the current in both straight segments located in the same slot has the same direction, and the beginnings  16  and  16 ′ of the wires  15 ,  15 ′ are located directly side by side on the same side of the stator  30 . 
       FIGS. 3 and 4  show a head portion  22  in side view and top view, respectively, on a larger scale. It can be seen that the wire  15  has first been bent over onto itself by 180°. After that, the two legs of the head portion  22  have been spread, so that at the bending point, a lateral bend about an axis located essentially transversely to the first bending axis has also been made. The bending operations at the apexes, marked  23 , of the gable-shaped head portions  22  result in a plastic deformation so that the attained shape is preserved. In addition,  FIG. 4  clearly shows that the thus-deformed head portions  22  are naturally, like the straight segments  20  joined by them, located in two directly adjacent plies. The transition between the two plies is located at the apex  23  of the head portions  22 . 
     In the exemplary embodiment of  FIG. 1  the wire groups  10  and  12  and the wave winding  14  put together from them have only so many straight segments that with them, in a stator with 42 slots, only a single two-ply layer can be produced. In other words, each wire  15  extends only once around the circumference, and there are only two straight segments in each slot. 
       FIGS. 5 through 8  additionally show a four-ply winding diagram for a stator  30 , also with 42 slots, in which for the sake of simplicity only a single pair of wires  15 ,  15 ′ is shown, which pair is located in the slots  1 ,  4 ,  7  . . .  37 , and  40 . The complete distributed wave winding actually also includes a second pair of wires  15 ,  15 ′, which is located in the slots  2 ,  5 ,  8  . . .  38 , and  41 , as well as a third pair of wires  15 ,  15 ′, which is located in the slots  3 ,  6 ,  9  . . .  39 , and  42 . By comparing the two end views of the stator  30  in  FIGS. 5 and 6 , it can be seen that on each of those circumferential portions where the head portions  22  of one wire (e.g.,  15 ) are located on one end, the other wire (e.g.,  15 ′) has its head portions  22  on the other end of the stator  30 . The wire beginnings  16  and  16 ′ emerge radially outward from the slots  1  and  4 . The wire ends  18  and  18 ′ protrude radially inward from the slots  1  and  40 , respectively, and are located on the same axial end of the stator  30  as the wire beginnings  16 ,  16 ′. They have a short circumferential spacing and can therefore easily be electrically connected to one another, so that in the finished state, for each pair of wires  15 ,  15 ′ associated with one another, only two external connections or terminals are needed. 
       FIGS. 5 and 6  already show the uniform shape of the head portions  22  in all the layers over the entire circumference on both ends of the stator  30 . This uniformity, even at the transitions from one two-ply layer to the next, can be explained in conjunction with  FIGS. 7 and 8 .  FIG. 7  shows a developed view, that is, the stretched-out outset state of a wave winding  14  of the invention, here comprising only a single pair of associated wires, or in other words  FIG. 7  shows the same situation as in  FIGS. 5 and 6 . The numbers of the slots are indicated for three passes all the way around the circumference of the stator. Small circles represent straight segments of the wire  15  of group  10 , and small squares represent straight segments of the wire  15 ′ of group  12 . It can be seen that between slots  4  and  7  a solid line connects the straight segments, marked with a square, of the wire  15 ′ of group  12 . Looking toward the face end of the stator  30  shown in  FIG. 6 , these are the head portions  22 , marked by thin lines, between the slots  4  and  7 . At the same time, in  FIG. 7 , a dashed line connects the straight segments, marked by small circles, of the wire  15  of group  10 , which is represented by only a single wire. Thus the head portions  22 , which are not visible looking toward the face end of the stator  30  shown in  FIG. 6 , are made apparent on the other end of the stator  30 . Accordingly, in  FIG. 5 , between slots  4  and  7 , the head portions of the wire group  10  are shown, marked with heavier lines. 
     Thus  FIGS. 7 and 8  show developed views of projections of the head portions  22 , located on the opposite ends of the stator  30 , onto a transverse plane of the longitudinal center axis of the stator  30 . The solid lines symbolize the head portions  22  on the connection side of the stator  30  that are visible to the observer in  FIG. 6 , and the dashed lines symbolize the head portions  22  which are invisible to the observer, on the opposite face end of the stator  30 . Both in the developed view of three two-ply layers in  FIG. 7  and in the view in  FIG. 8 , where the three two-ply layers are shown one above the other, it can be seen that the solid lines and the dashed lines alternate and intersect. It should be stressed especially that even where the transitions from the first to the second layer and from the second to the third layer are located, the solid lines and the dashed lines, which symbolize the head portions  22  on axially opposite circumferential portions of the stator  30 , intersect and alternate quite regularly, in a way that is no different from how they behave in the other circumferential portions as well. The uniformity of the winding diagram of  FIGS. 7 and 8  is confirmation of the fact that wire groups  10 ,  12  are uniformly wavy and uniformly interlaced separately and intertwined/interlaced with one another, regardless of the number of wires  15 ,  15 ′ and the number of slots. As long as the number of slots is divisible by twice the number of wires of one wire group, a very uniformly wound stator or rotor as in  FIGS. 5 and 6  can be created. 
     For the industry, the precision of shaping and laying of the wires is just as important as the uniformity of the winding diagram of  FIGS. 7 and 8 . Therefore these wires intersect one another only at the predetermined points and are oriented uniformly with their rectangular cross section, or in other words are placed against one another flatly and not skewed. This can be attained with the proposed production method, with two individually prefabricated, single-ply wire groups  10 ,  12 , in which, because of the described shaping of the apexes  23  of the head portions  22 , both the head portions and the straight segments  20  can be created with a uniform orientation of the side edges of the wires  15 . After that, it is no problem for the straight segments and head portions, in this way oriented precisely, of the two wire groups  10 ,  12  to be placed, intertwined/interlaced with one another, one above the other and then, while maintaining the uniform orientation of the wires, to introduce them into slots of a stator or rotor that are open radially outward or inward. This may also, in extreme, for instance be a stator or rotor of an electric linear motor.