Abstract:
A method of fabricating a motor-pump combination with the motor including a stator including a plurality of teeth extending between opposite stator end faces and a plurality of tooth tips defining a generally axial bore, the method including: forming a magnetic portion of a generally annular sleeve by compression molding a plurality of axially extending ferromagnetic strips using a plastic binder; forming a non magnetic portion of the annular sleeve by injection molding plastic material between adjacent ferromagnetic strips; molding a resin material casing member for the pump with the casing member having a generally annular cylindrical section and including the annular sleeve in part in the annular cylindrical section; and inserting the annular cylindrical section into the bore of the stator and aligning the ferromagnetic strips of the annular sleeve in abutting engagement with the tooth tips on the teeth of the stator.

Description:
This application is a division of application Ser. No. 09/347,539 filed Jul. 6, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,274,962, which is a division of Ser. No. 08/766,683 filed Dec. 13, 1996 issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,990,588 on Nov. 23, 1999, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to electric motor driven fluid handling assemblies and, more particularly, to a seal-less pump and motor assembly having improved electrical characteristics. 
     There are various applications in which a mechanical apparatus may be exposed or immersed in a fluid and adapted for being driven by an electric motor. Typical examples are a water pump in a dishwasher or clothes washing machine and an agitator in a clothes washing machine. In such applications, it is desirable to isolate the electric motor from the water both to protect the motor and to prevent electric shock hazards. A classic method of isolating the electric motor is to extend a shaft from the mechanical apparatus through a seal to the motor. The shaft to seal interface must provide for relative shaft motion and therefore is subject to wear and deterioration leading to fluid leaks at the interface. 
     An alternative strategy which avoids the potential seal leakage is to place the motor into the fluid environment. However, this strategy is inadvisable for water pumps and can be expensive when the electrical connections of the motor must be fluid proof. 
     Another method which avoids the seal leakage problem is to construct the apparatus, e.g., a pump, within a housing which also encompasses the motor rotor. The housing closely envelopes the circumference of the rotor without contact. The motor stator is then positioned outside the housing about the rotor. With a typical plastic housing, this arrangement requires a relatively large space between the rotor and stator, i.e., the effective “air gap” may be as much as 10 times the normal motor gap for an induction motor. For example, a minimum thickness for a plastic housing is generally about 0.09 inches while a nominal air gap for an efficient induction motor is about 0.01 inch. The resulting construction produces a motor which is oversized, expensive and inefficient with poor operating characteristics. 
     Still another prior art attempt to resolve the electric motor/pump problem of isolating the motor from the pumped fluid is to use a permanent magnet motor. Such a motor is expensive due to both the magnet cost and fabrication costs to meet water resistant constraints. Further, simple single phase permanent magnet synchronous motors are sometimes used for this purpose and are difficult to start in a controlled direction and have synchronization problems. If an electronically commutated control is used, the motor and drive cost increases dramatically. 
     Another challenge when designing a seal-less pump is that, even in relatively clean water, the wet rotor of a seal-less pump is subject to corrosion because of the presence of dissolved oxygen. A conventional technique for resisting corrosion is to coat the rotor with a material such as a plastic or an epoxy or to plate the rotor with a corrosion resistant metal such as aluminum. Crevices between rotor laminations and/or between rotor laminations and the rotor cage cause effective sealing to be difficult, and the coatings sometimes fail after a number of immersions. 
     To avoid the crevices, a solid iron rotor can be used. Sheet rotors comprising a copper shell brazed to a solid steel core are used in X-ray tube target rotators to withstand high temperatures, high speed, and vacuum conditions. Such rotors are typically coated with infra-red emitters. 
     Solid iron and steel cores can become corroded, and skin effects can affect electromagnetic steady state performance in the solid cores even at low slip frequencies. These skin effects can lead to difficulties in starting the rotor. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Among the several objects of the present invention may be noted the provision of an induction motor driven fluid handling apparatus which eliminates the necessity of a seal at any rotating interface; the provision of an induction motor driven fluid handling apparatus in which the motor rotor is encompassed by an apparatus housing while the motor air gap is maintained at a nominal value; the provision of an induction motor driven fluid handling apparatus which overcomes the size, inefficiency and poor operating characteristics of prior seal-less motors; the provision of a method for construction of an induction motor driven seal-less pump; and the provision of an economical method of making a corrosion resistant induction motor rotor that will have a good electromagnetic performance. 
     Briefly, in one embodiment a seal-less pump and electric motor assembly includes a motor rotor fixed to a driving shaft connected to an impeller in the pump assembly. The motor rotor and impeller are enclosed in a common housing such that the rotor rotates within any fluid being pumped by the impeller. The portion of the housing circumscribing the motor rotor includes a plurality of axially extending, circumferentially spaced strips of magnetic material penetrating through the insulative plastic material of the housing. Each of the strips coincide with corresponding ones of the pole teeth of a motor stator circumscribing the outer portion of the housing such that the strips in the housing act as extensions of the pole teeth. 
     In another embodiment, a rotor of a seal-less pump comprises a rotor shaft, a rotor core including a molded magnetic powder and plastic composite material surrounding the rotor shaft, and an annular corrosion resistant electrically conductive tube surrounding the rotor core. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     For a better understanding of the present invention, reference may be had to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a prior art seal-less pump and electric motor assembly; 
     FIG. 2 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a seal-less pump/induction motor assembly incorporating the present invention; 
     FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a pump enclosure segment according to the present invention; 
     FIGS. 4 and 5 are enlarged sectional views of sections of the enclosure segment of FIG. 3 showing alternate forms of magnetic strips and pole teeth extensions. 
     FIGS. 6,  6 A,  6 B,  6 C,  6 D, and  6 E illustrate still other cross-sectional shapes for the magnetic strips and pole teeth extensions; 
     FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate manufacturing steps for producing the inventive housing segment; 
     FIG. 9 is a view of a conventional rotor lamination sheet; 
     FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a rotor embodiment of the present invention; and 
     FIGS. 11 and 12 are sectional side views of a fixture for fabricating the rotor of FIG.  10 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     FIG. 1 is a simplified cross-sectional view of a prior art seal-less pump/induction motor assembly of the type with which the present invention may be used. The pump  10  comprises an impeller  12  positioned in an enclosure  14  forming a portion of a pump housing  16 . Another enclosure  18  forms another portion of housing  16  and encompasses a rotor  20  of an alternating current (AC) induction motor  22 . The housing  16  is circular about an axis  24  through the motor rotor  20  and impeller  12 . A shaft  26  of rotor  20  lies on axis  24  and connects to impeller  12  so that rotation of rotor  20  drives impeller  12 . An O-ring  28  positioned in an annular groove  30  in a wall  32  of enclosure  14  provides a watertight seal between enclosure  14  and enclosure  18 . Enclosure  18  may be attached to enclosure  14  by threaded fasteners, clamps or other means well known in the art. For simplicity, neither the enclosure-to-enclosure attachment means nor the pump inlet and outlet lines are shown. Further, the bearing assemblies which support shaft  26  for rotation are omitted. 
     The motor  22  includes a stator  34  positioned outside enclosure  18  circumscribing rotor  20 . Pole faces of stator  34  are desirably abutting the outer surface of enclosure  18  in order to reduce the gap between the pole faces and the outer surface of rotor  20 . However, the minimum thickness of enclosure  18  is limited to about {fraction (3/32)} inch in order to provide sufficient strength and stiffness of the enclosure. For good performance and efficiency and reasonable size, the desired air gap, i.e., the spacing between the stator pole teeth faces and the rotor outer surface should be about {fraction (1/100)} inch. Thus, the plastic enclosure  18  results in a stator-rotor gap which is about 10 times the desired gap and detrimentally affects motor size, performance and efficiency. Obviously, the stator  34  operates in open air while rotor  20  is submerged in whatever fluid, e.g., water, is being pumped. 
     Turning to FIG. 2, there is shown a cross-sectional view taken along the line  2 — 2  of FIG. 1, illustrating an improved electric motor driven pump assembly in accordance with the present invention. The elements of FIG. 1 remain unchanged, the invention lying in the construction of enclosure  18 . Considering FIG. 2 in combination with FIG. 3, it will be seen that the inventive enclosure  18  is constructed with a plurality of circumferentially spaced ferromagnetic strips  36  integrally formed in the plastic material of enclosure  18 , i.e., the strips  36  alternate with plastic elements  48 . Each of the strips  36  has an inner face  38  coincident with the inner face  40  of enclosure  18  allowing the strips  36  to be closely positioned facing rotor  20 , preferably within {fraction (1/100)} inch. The strips  36  extend through enclosure  18  and are accessible from an outer surface of enclosure  18  allowing direct contact with respective pole teeth members  42  of stator  34 . For simplicity, the windings  44  of FIG. 1 are not shown in the pole teeth interstices  46  of FIG.  2 . It will be appreciated that various numbers of pole teeth may be used and that there may be multiple pole teeth in each magnetic pole of stator  34 . The strips  36  are desirably formed with the same axial length and width as the pole teeth  42 . 
     As shown in FIG. 3, at least a portion of the enclosure  18  may be formed as an annular sleeve comprising a plurality of molded magnetic tooth tips or strips  36  interspersed with conventional plastic strips  48  to form a segmented ring  50 . In general, the strips  36  are formed by combining iron powder in a plastic matrix and then either extruding or molding the individual strips  36  from the plastic into a shape to match the width and length of a stator tooth with which the ring is to be used. Once the strips  36  have been formed, these strips can then be set into a die or mold that will be used to make the injection molded pump shell or enclosure  18  and molded in place with the remainder of the enclosure  18 . The sizing of the segmented ring  50  is selected so that when the motor stator is slid over the enclosure  18 , there is a tight fit between each of the strips  36  and a corresponding one of the pole tooth members  42 . In effect, the strips  36  become extensions of the pole teeth  42 . In this way, the magnetic gap is reduced to that of only the spacing between the outer surface of the rotor  20  and the inner surface of the enclosure  18 . Such spacing may be only that gap required to provide a mechanical clearance between the enclosure  18  plus a few mils for stator fit mismatch. Thus, the motor  22  may be of conventional design and size except for a small extra tooth leakage flux and a slightly larger effective gap between the ends of the stator teeth and the outer surface of the rotor  20 . It is expected that the powdered iron in the plastic or epoxy matrix will have a lower permeability and higher losses than a steel lamination, but since the volume of the powdered iron matrix is relatively small, the effect will not be of major significance in overall motor performance. A typical powdered iron material useful in forming the strips  36  of the present invention is available from the Hoeganaes Corporation in the form of an atomized iron powder, similar to that used in sintered powder metallurgy production, but with each particle of iron powder coated with a layer of ULTEM™ polyetherimide (ULTEM is a registered trademark of the General Electric Company). 
     Referring now to FIGS. 4 and 5, there is shown enlarged cross-sectional views of a portion of the enclosure  18  with two different forms of the strips  36 . In both FIGS. 4 and 5, the enclosure  18  is molded with the strips  36  having a different radial thickness than the adjacent plastic sections between the strips. Accordingly, the enclosure  18  appears to have a plurality of grooves  52  overlying each of the strips  36 . The grooves facilitate accurate matching of the stator to the magnetic strips by forcing the stator teeth into the grooves between the plastic elements and onto the ferromagnetic strips  36 . During the assembly process, the grooves enable the stator to be guided into the proper position without any special tooling. For conventional motor stators having a broad or widened tooth tip  54 , the arrangement shown in FIG. 4 may be preferred in which the broadened tooth tips simply mate with a wide strip  36 . The strips  36  then merely create an extra thick tooth tip. This arrangement results in some additional leakage flux with a penalty in the pullout torque generated by the motor but still provides significant advantages over the prior art. An alternative is to fabricate the stator teeth with straight segments as shown in FIG.  5  and to form the strips  36  in a conventional tooth tip configuration. This arrangement improves the leakage flux problem and further improves pullout torque but does require a redesign of the stator laminations to produce the stator teeth without the conventional tooth tip  54 . 
     It will also be noted in FIG. 4 that the strips  36  are formed with grooves  56  along opposite sides. These grooves  56  may be useful in providing a better binding of the strips  36  to the adjacent plastic sections  48  of the enclosure  18 . FIG. 6 illustrates some additional shapes which may be useful in forming the strips  36 . These additional shapes may be useful in providing improved sealing, simplifying manufacturing or merely to give greater strength to the outer shell of enclosure  18 . 
     FIGS. 6A,  6 B,  6 C,  6 D, and  6 E illustrate other shapes of the pole teeth extensions and strips  36 . The radial shape of a magnetic strip affects the flux pattern in the magnetic strip and can provide various physical features to enhance the fabrication process. The shape of a strip can be used to aid the flux transition from a high permeability steel to a lower permeability magnetic strip and to reduce volume occupied by a magnetic strip. Cost of a magnetic strip is proportional to density. It can be cost effective therefore to reduce the density of a magnetic strip while permitting an acceptable level of magnetic losses. The required magnetic strip density can be decreased by reducing the flux density and total flux passing through the magnetic strip. 
     FIG. 6A encourages alignment of the stator pole teeth members  42  with strips  36  by forming each strip  36  with a radially outward extending portion  36 A. Pole teeth members  42 , preferably formed of punched and stacked laminations, are designed with an end shaped with a depression to fit about and abut against strips  36 . The height of the portion  36 A above the outer surface of the rotor shell  48  is about 0.057 inches for a sleeve or shell  48  thickness of about 0.081 inches. This embodiment is useful for alignment but requires more magnetic strip material and promotes a higher flux density in the transition region. 
     FIG. 6B is a reversal of FIG. 6A in which the pole teeth members  42  are formed with a rounded protuberance  42 A which fits into and engages a shaped depression  36 B in strip  36 . This embodiment aids alignment, reduces the amount of strip material required, and promotes a lower flux density in the transition region of the magnetic strip. 
     Two potential challenges to fabrication of the seal-less pump are interference of stator winding endturn bundles (not shown) with segmented ring  50  (and pump/rotor housing  18 ) and difficulty in holding the stator windings in the stator slots prior to assembly with the pump/rotor housing. 
     FIG. 6C is a view of a stator tooth having vestigial tips  37  which protrude into the stator slot to help hold in place any slot insulator and/or slot wedge. Depending upon the size of the vestigials, the vestigials can also be useful for holding the slot windings in position. Having depressions in strip  36  and protuberances in teeth member  42 , as shown in FIGS. 6B-6E, provides an increase in the minimum diameters that the endturn bundles can occupy towards the bore. 
     FIGS. 6D and 6E illustrate alternative positions for the vestigial tips where the edges of the vestigial tips are not aligned with the magnetic strip. In FIG. 6D, vestigial tips  37   a  are wider than the magnetic strip edge, and in FIG. 6E, vestigial tips  37   b  are narrower than the magnetic strip edge. 
     FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate other possible intermediate stages of fabrication of an enclosure  18  in accordance with the present invention. In FIG. 7, the magnetic portion of a segmented ring  58  is positioned on a mandrel  60 . The segmented ring  58  comprises a plurality of powdered iron and plastic composite tooth tips or strips  36  which can be bonded together by plastic strips  48  molded in between as shown in FIG.  3 . The segmented ring  58  is initially formed on the mandrel  60  in a compression molding operation as shown in FIG. 8. A small end ring  62  of material is left at one end to assure that the teeth  36  remain in proper alignment. The mandrel  60  is coated with a release compound and has an outer diameter which forms the inner diameter of the segmented ring  58 , i.e., it has a diameter equal to the diameter of the motor rotor  20  plus a desired clearance gap, e.g., about {fraction (1/100)} inch. The mandrel  60  is positioned into a die  64  which has a plurality of slots surrounding the mandrel with each of the slots having the desired length and configuration of a strip  36  to be molded. The powdered iron and plastic matrix, e.g., ULTEM™ polyetherimide, is poured into the die  64  to fill the space around the mandrel  60  and a ram  66  is then brought down into the die  64  to compression form the segmented ring. The die  64  is heated during compression to mold the powdered iron and plastic into a composite part. 
     After molding, the mandrel  60  with the molded tooth tips or strips  36  attached is then withdrawn from the die  64 . The mandrel  60  and tooth tips  36  are then inserted in a second die (not shown). A molten plastic is then injected into the spaces between each of the preformed strips  36  while the strips are in the die so that the spaces between each of the strips is filled with the molten plastic. The temperature and pressure with which the plastic is injected is selected based upon normal production injection molding of parts. The injected plastic will bond with the plastic base of the magnetic strips  36  thus forming a watertight solid enclosure. Preferably, the plastic is filled with glass fiber such that the expansion coefficients of the tooth tips  36  and the intermediate filler are reasonably matched. After molding and removal from the die, the temporary end ring  62  which was used to hold the molded strips  36  together can be severed from the final segmented ring. The enclosure  18  is then completed by positioning the segmented ring  50  (See FIG. 3) into a conventional pump casing mold (not shown) which molds the final entire enclosure  18  in a conventional manner. 
     While the above described method of producing the segmented ring  50  is a preferred method, an alternate method may be to extrude the ring  50  as a composite ring with both the magnetic strips  36  and the intermediate plastic sections in a single operation. Since the plastic base used in both the strips and the bonding plastic are the same or compatible, they will merge and bond in the process. The tooth tips formed by the extrusion process will be less dense than those formed using the compression molding process and will result in somewhat poorer electromagnetic performance. However, since the tooth tips form a very small part of the total magnetic circuit, it is believed that there will be little difference in overall motor performance between extruded and compression molded tooth tips. 
     FIG. 9 is a view of a conventional rotor lamination sheet  110 . Induction motor rotors for small machines are conventionally fabricated by punching thin steel sheets (having thickness ranging from about 0.018 inches to about 0.030 inches) and stacking the sheets to form the rotor core. The holes near the periphery of the rotor core are generally filled with molten aluminum to form the rotor windings. Rings of aluminum are molded onto the ends of the windings to connect the windings together and form a “squirrel cage” winding. Stacking of rotor core sheets (laminations) permits the magnetic flux to fully penetrate the rotor during starting, aides in torque production, and can increase efficiency of the rotor during operation. Rotor stacks are often skewed to minimize slot interaction effects. As discussed in the background above, conventional induction motor rotors are conducive to corrosion when they become wet. 
     Starting and running performance of a corrosion resistant rotor can be achieved by pressing or shrink fitting an annulus of electrically conductive, corrosion resistant material over a solid steel rotor core. For solid steel rotor cores, there will be skin effects, especially during starting, and corrosion occurs. 
     FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a rotor embodiment of the present invention. A rotor core  112  comprises a molded magnetic powder/plastic composite material. In one embodiment, irregularly shaped iron particles individually coated with a plastic material such as ULTEM™ polyetherimide are compression molded with a shaft hole. Other examples of appropriate magnetic materials include steel, ferrite (iron oxide), stainless steel, nickel, and cobalt. Other examples of appropriate plastic materials include polymers and epoxies. The rotor fabrication process then is completed by applying a shaft  114  comprising a corrosion resistant material such as stainless steel and an annular tube  116  comprising a corrosion resistant electrically conductive material such as aluminum, brass, or copper. In another embodiment, the core is fabricated by extruding a long rod of material with a central hole and cutting off suitable lengths. This less expensive fabrication process results in some surface corrosion from metal exposed by cutting the end surfaces. 
     FIGS. 11 and 12 are sectional side views of one embodiment of a fixture  118  for fabricating the rotor of FIG.  10 . First, hollow aluminum tube  116  is baked in air to form a hard aluminum oxide coating on all surfaces to resist corrosion. Tube  116  is positioned in a cylindrical die fixture  118 . Shaft  114  is also positioned in the fixture. The fixture, tube, and shaft are then preheated to a predetermined molding temperature, and the coated iron particles  129  are preheated and poured into the fixture. It is useful to have a mold piece  120  adjacent tube  116  and fixture  118  to better guide particles  112   a  between the tube and the shaft and to prevent distortion of the tube  116 . It is also useful to have a notch  124  in fixture  118  for supporting the rotor shaft. 
     The poured volume of particles should be greater than the finished rotor core size to allow for compression. A ram  122  can be brought down with a suitable force to compress the volume of particles, and raising the temperature will cause the particles to bond together and form a solid mass  112 . After a cooling period, the finished rotor can be removed from the die. Whether preheating and/or cooling is necessary is dependent on the plastic material coating the iron particles. 
     The rotor of the present invention is expected to have good flux penetration and low losses in running. The molding process will leave a film of bonding material on the surface of the rotor which will provide an additional barrier to the individual particle coats, and a close bond between the core and the tube will prevent the entry of moisture into the core. 
     While the invention has been described in what is presently considered to be a preferred embodiment, many variations and modifications will become apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, it is intended that the invention not be limited to the specific illustrative embodiment but be interpreted within the full spirit and scope of the appended claims.