Abstract:
An electric rotary machine includes a stator comprising: a stator ring; a plurality of discrete salient poles each comprising a pole tooth, disposed inside the stator ring thereby forming a magnetic circuit, and fixed by a molding resin injected inside the stator ring; and a plurality of bobbins each constituting the salient pole, adapted to lodge the pole tooth fitted thereinto and to have a magnet wire wound thereon, and each including its outward-positioned flange having at its respective both ends two flexible thin-walled extensions which are adapted to securely hold the wound magnet wire in place, stay unbent during winding operation, and which are bent when the salient poles are put inside the stator ring.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an electric rotary machine (hereinafter referred to as “rotary machine,” or occasionally “motor” as appropriate), and more particularly to a radial gap type rotary machine comprising an armature with discrete salient poles. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     In a conventional rotary machine including a stator armature structured such that a plurality of ring-shaped yoke pieces, which are made of a soft magnetic plate, such as a silicon steel plate, and which each have a plurality of pole tooth portions protruding radially, are stacked in the axial direction, since each of the ring-shaped yoke pieces is punched out integrally with the plurality of pole tooth portions as a single piece (the armature composed of the ring-shaped yoke pieces thus structured is hereinafter referred to as “integral armature” as appropriate), pole teeth each composed of a stack number of pole tooth portions are not partitioned structurally and therefore a resultant armature will have superior magnetic efficiency (low reluctance). However, in a small rotary machine, since a wire is usually wound directly on each of the pole teeth, the integral armature makes the winding operation troublesome, and extremely troublesome when the rotary machine is of inner rotor type. As a result, the winding operation takes a long time, and the winding incurs unsatisfactory space factor as well. And, due to the flyer-winding involved in this case, the wire is subject to torsional stress during the winding operation, thereby failing to ensure reliability of the winding area. 
     Under the circumstances above described, a rare earth magnet having high energy product has been developed recently, and the structure of a rotary machine can be reviewed by means of magnetic circuit analysis using a computer. This works to enable a rotary machine with an armature of discrete salient pole structure (this armature is hereinafter referred to as “discrete armature” as appropriate) to obtain requisite motor characteristics. The rotary machine with the discrete armature may give some undesired increase in reluctance but offers great advantages of easier winding operation and increased space factor of winding so as to override the disadvantageous increase in reluctance. From this, it is now realized that the rotary machine with the discrete armature produces higher performance and is manufactured less expensively on the whole, and there is a growing demand for the discrete armature. 
     One example of the discrete armature is manufactured such that pole tooth portions are dismembered off its main body portion of an integral armature, a wire is wound around each of the dismembered pole tooth portions thereby constituting each salient pole portion, and that the pole tooth portions each with a wire wound therearound, namely, the salient pole portions are rejoined to the main body portion by laser-welding, or the like. 
     The armature thus structured, however, has a disadvantage that the integral armature has to be first sectioned and later reassembled, thereby requiring an additional time. Also, when the pole tooth portions each with a winding (salient poles) are rejoined to the main body portion, the stack layers of the both portions have to be matched with each other, and therefore it is required that respective portions be held together by a well-maintained tool and surely welded plate by plate for ensuring precision, which results in decreased workability. And, joints (welded portions) deteriorate significantly in mechanical strength and magnetic characteristics. 
     To overcome the above described problems, the present inventors disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-238377 a radial gap type rotary machine including a stator which comprises: a discrete armature including a plurality of discrete salient poles, and a cylindrical pole tooth ring for connecting the salient poles to one another magnetically and mechanically; and a cylindrical stator ring adapted to decrease leakage flux resulting from magnetic discontinuity. 
     FIG. 10 is a partial cross-sectional view of a conventional rotary machine with a discrete armature viewed from the axial direction. Illustrated in FIG. 10 are: salient poles  106 , an armature assembly  110 , a flange  12 , a rotor assembly  20 , a shaft  21 , pole teeth  134 , bobbins  136 , bobbin flanges  136   b  and  136   c , coil winding portions  136   g , magnetic wires  138 , a molding resin  60 , and a stator ring  100 . The rotary machine disclosed in the above mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-238377 has a pole tooth ring for positioning and fixing salient poles, but the pole tooth ring is not essential for the prevent invention and is omitted in FIG. 10 for ease of understanding. However, it is noted that the present invention can be applied to a rotary machine having the pole tooth ring. 
     As shown in FIG. 10, in the conventional rotary machine with a discrete armature, the bobbin  136 , which holds a pole tooth comprising a plurality of thin steel plates stacked, has its flanges  136   b  and  136   c  respectively on its both ends sandwiching the coil winding portion  136   g . The bobbin flanges  136   b  and  136   c  are dimensioned to be larger than the coil winding thickness so as to keep the magnet wire  138  braided in good shape. And, the molding resin  60  is injected between the salient poles  106 , whereby the salient poles  106  and the magnet wires  138  are fixed securely. The above described rotary machine, however, has the following problems. 
     The circumferential dimension of the bobbin flange  136   b  positioned toward the stator ring  100  is usually determined according to the coil winding thickness. The magnet wire  138  receives a stress due to the expansion and contraction of the molding resin  60  injected between the salient poles  106 , and may become unbraided at its outer turns when the bobbin flange  136   b  is conventionally dimensioned, which allows a part of the magnet wire  138  to get in direct contact with the stator ring  100  of a steel plate, possibly causing an insulation failure. 
     Also, the bobbin flange  136   b  has a dimensional problem, which will be described with reference to FIGS. 11A,  11 B and  12 . 
     FIG. 11A is a cross-sectional view of a bobbin of the salient pole  106 , in which the bobbin flange  136   b  positioned toward the stator ring  100  is dimensioned to the outside dimension of a coil, and FIG. 11B is a cross-sectional view of a bobbin of a salient pole  206 , in which a bobbin flange  236   b  positioned toward the stator ring  100  is dimensioned to be larger than the outside dimension of a coil. 
     Referring to FIG. 11B, the bobbin flange  236   b  dimensioned to be larger than the outside dimension of a coil is forced to be located closer to another bobbin flange  236   c  due to the stator ring  100  arcing, thereby decreasing a winding space for a magnet wire  238 . This means that, if a bobbin flange positioned toward the stator ring  100  is simply increased in dimension as shown in FIG. 11B for the purpose of preventing the coil from getting unbraided resulting in a magnet wire coming in contact with the stator ring  100 , the winding space is decreased resulting in a reduced space factor, thereby failing to achieve desired motor characteristics. Seemingly, this problem can be solved by making the bobbin flange  236   b  configured, specifically, arced to the configuration of the inner circumferential surface of the stator ring  100 , but this seeming solution still has the following problem. 
     FIG. 12 is an explanatory view of the problem of the seeming solution. In FIG. 12, a salient pole  306  has a bobbin with a bobbin flange  336   b  located toward the stator ting  100  (not shown in FIG.  12 ). The bobbin flange  336   b  has an increased dimension, and is arced to follow the inner circumferential surface of the stator ring  100 . With this configuration, a coil winding portion  336   g  defined by a space between the bobbin flange  336   b  and another bobbin flange  336   c  can be increased by the dimension S in the length direction. However, the inwardly-overhanging (downwardly in the figure) ends of the bobbin flange  336   b  stand in the way when a magnet wire  338  is wound on the bobbin, making the winding operation very difficult, and can touch the magnet wire  338  causing a trouble. Accordingly, the increased dimension S cannot be fully utilized due to the existence of the downwardly-overhanging ends of the bobbin flange  336   b.    
     Further, the rotary machine shown in FIG. 10 is structured such that-the rotor assembly  20  is disposed at the center of the stator ring  100 , and a plurality (six in the figure) of salient poles  106  are arrayed circumferentially between the stator ring  100  and the rotor assembly  20 . This structure causes it that an open space, into which the molding resin  60  is poured, is larger toward the stator ring  100  than toward the rotor assembly  20 . In this structure, the above described problem produces an additional open space proportionate to the decreased coil winding portion, which increases the amount of the molding resin  60  thereby pushing up the material cost and increasing the injecting time, especially in case of a large size rotary machine. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention has been made in the light of the above problems, and it is an object of the invention to provide a rotary machine, in which a magnet wire is free from contact with a stator ring, the space factor of a coil is increased, and the amount of a molding resin to be injected inside the stator ring is decreased. 
     In order to achieve the object, according to a first aspect of the present invention, a rotary machine includes a stator comprising: a stator ring thereby forming a magnetic circuit; a plurality of salient poles each having a pole tooth, disposed inside the stator ring, and fixed by a molding resin injected inside the stator ring; and a plurality of bobbins each constituting the salient pole, adapted to lodge the pole tooth fitted thereinto and to have a magnet wire wound thereon, and each having its outward-positioned flange in contact with the stator ring, wherein the outward-positioned flange has two flexible thin-walled extensions at its respective ends thereby securely holding the wound magnet wire in place. 
     According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the rotary machine of the first aspect, a resin compartment is formed at the end of one of the two thin-walled extensions. 
     According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the rotary machine of the second aspect, any part of the resin compartment is positioned behind the plane of the inner wall face of the bobbin flange before assembly. 
     According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the rotary machine of the second or third aspect, the resin compartment is hollow. 
     Accordingly, in the rotary machine of the present invention, the flexible thin-walled extensions, which are adapted to hold the magnet wire wound in place thereby preventing the magnet wire from making contact with the stator ring, stay unbent before assembly and are bent during assembly, whereby the winding operation is not hindered improving the production efficiency and also the coil winding portion can be successfully increased improving the space factor. And, the resin compartment works to reduce the open space in the stator ring to be filled by the molding resin, thereby decreasing the amount of the molding resin and reducing the time for injecting the molding resin. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The above and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description which will be given with reference to the illustrative accompanying drawings, in which: 
     FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a rotary machine according to a first embodiment of the present invention, showing its axial section; 
     FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the rotary machine of FIG. 1, partially showing its radial section; 
     FIGS. 3A and 3B in combination constitute an exploded perspective view of a salient pole (omitting a magnet wire) of FIGS. 1 and 2, wherein FIG. 3A shows a bobbin and FIG. 3B shows a pole tooth; 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the salient pole (including the magnet wire) of FIGS. 1 and 2; 
     FIGS. 5A and 5B in combination constitute an exploded perspective view of an armature assembly of FIG. 1, wherein FIG. 5A shows six salient poles arranged at an angle of 60 degrees with respective bobbin flanges in contact with one another, and FIG. 5B shows a stator ring; 
     FIG. 6A is a plan view of the salient pole (omitting the magnet wire) of FIG. 4, showing how the pole tooth is set in the bobbin; 
     FIG. 6B is a plan view of the salient pole of FIG. 4 provided with the magnet wire and housed in the stator ring; 
     FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a dummy resin portion of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a resin compartment according to a second embodiment of the present invention; 
     FIG. 9A is a plan view of a salient pole (omitting a magnet wire) according to a third embodiment, showing how a pole tooth is set in a bobbin; 
     FIG. 9B is a plan view of the salient pole of FIG. 9A provided with the magnet wire, and housed in the stator ring; 
     FIG. 10 is a schematic view of a conventional rotary machine, partially showing its radial section; 
     FIG. 11A is an explanatory sectional view of a problem of the conventional rotary machine, showing a salient pole comprising a bobbin with its stator ring-side flange having a dimension matched to a coil outside dimension; 
     FIG. 11B is an explanatory sectional view of a problem of the conventional rotary machine, showing a salient-pole comprising a bobbin with its stator ring-side flange having a dimension larger than a coil outside dimension; and 
     FIG. 12 is an explanatory view of a problem of the conventional rotary machine, showing a bobbin with its stator ring-side flange having a dimension larger than a coil outside dimension and configured to follow the inner circumference of the stator ring. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 
     FIGS. 1 and 2 show a structure of a three-phase inner rotor type brushless DC motor with six salient poles and eight rotor magnetic poles, as an embodiment of the present invention, wherein illustrated are: salient poles  6 , an armature assembly  10 , flanges  12  and  13 , a rotor assembly  20 , a shaft  21 , a sleeve  22 , a rotor field magnet  23 , a rotor position detecting magnet  23   a , a spacer  24 , a ball bearing  25 , a sleeve bearing  26 , a preload spring holder  27 , a preload spring  28 , pole teeth  34 , pole tooth end portions  34   a , bobbins  36 , bobbin flanges  36   b  and  36   c , coil winding portions  36   g , resin compartments  36   e , bobbin flange thin-walled extensions  36   f  and  36   i  having flexibility, magnet wires  38 , terminal pins  40 , a printed circuit board  51 , a Hall sensor  52 , connector terminals  53 , a connector  57 , a molding resin  60 , and a cylindrical stator ring  100 . 
     The embodiment here refers to a so-called integrally resin-molded armature assembly structured such that a resin is filled inside an armature assembly except a portion where a rotor field magnet is received. 
     The brushless DC motor generally comprises: the armature assembly  10 ; the two flanges  12  and  13  arranged respectively at both axial ends of the armature assembly  10 ; and the rotor assembly  20  rotatably disposed inside the armature assembly  10 . 
     The armature assembly  10  includes: the stator ring  100  as its outer circumference; and six of the salient poles  6  each extending radially, and arrayed circumferentially at an even angular interval of 60 degrees. 
     The salient poles  6  will be described below with reference to FIGS. 3A,  3 B and  4 . In FIGS. 3A,  3 B and  4 , the constituting parts same as or corresponding to those shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 have the same reference numbers. 
     The salient poles  6  are each structured such that the pole tooth  34  (FIG. 3B) composed of seven surface-insulated magnetic steel plates stacked on one another, each plate having a thickness of 0.5 mm and punched out to be substantially T-shaped, has its T-letter&#39;s vertical (oriented horizontal in the figure) bar portion inserted into a rectangular hole  36   a  of the bobbin  36  (FIG. 3A) and such that the wire  38  is wound on the coil winding portion  36   g  defined between the bobbin flanges  36   b  and  36   c  as shown in FIG.  4 . The terminations of the magnet wire  38  are bound around respective terminal pins  40  attached to the lower end of the bobbin flange  36   c.    
     The pole tooth  34  is dimensioned so as to protrude by a predetermined dimension overall from the surface of the bobbin flange  36   b  when fitted into the hole  36   a  of the bobbin  36 . 
     The pole tooth  34  may alternatively be made of a soft magnetic material such as a ceramic molding formed by sintering a soft magnetic powder, and a metallurgic molding formed by sintering a soft magnetic material composed of micro-powder of surface-insulated pure iron. The pole tooth  34  made of a different soft magnetic steel material containing Fe—Ni—Cr series steel not only keeps a high permeability but also has a relatively high electrical resistance thereby reducing its eddy current loss, and at the same time is free from corrosion without rustproof treatment thus being suitable for use in extreme environments such as automotive application. 
     The bobbin flange  36   c  has, on each of its both sides, two notches  36   d ,  36   d  forming resin injection holes for injecting the molding resin  48  through. 
     The bobbin flange  36   b  has a thin-walled extension  36   f  at one end thereof, and a thin-walled extension  36   i  and a resin compartment  36   e  at the other end. The thin-walled extensions  36   f  and  36   i , and the resin compartment  36   e  may be formed of the same material as the other portions of the bobbin  36 , for example, resin. Thus, the bobbin flange  36   b  of the present invention has its width increased for the dimensions of the thin-walled extensions  36   f  and  36   i , and the resin compartment  36   e , whereby the magnet wire  38  wound is prevented from becoming unbraided to get in contact with the stator ring  100  while assembling the rotary machine. Also, since the bobbin flange  36   b  including the thin-walled extensions  36   f  and  36   i , and the resin compartment  36   e , unlike the bobbin flange  336   b  shown in FIG. 12, is not arced toward the other bobbin flange  36   c , the winding operation is not hindered. 
     The structure of the armature assembly  10  will be described below with reference to FIGS. 5A and 5B, which in combination constitute an exploded view of the armature assembly  10  shown in FIG.  1 . In FIGS. 5A and 5B, any component parts corresponding to those in FIGS. 1 to  4  are denoted by the same reference numerals, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted. 
     The stator ring  100  shown in FIG. 5B is a hollow cylinder of soft magnetic steel and has a notch  100   a  for accommodating the connector  57  (see FIG.  1 ). In this embodiment, the stator ring  100  is put over the salient poles  6  shown in FIG. 5A, whereby a magnetic circuit is formed. In this embodiment, a pole tooth ring, which is used in a rotary machine disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-238377, is eliminated, but the present invention is not limited thereto but may be applied to the rotary machine using the pole tooth ring. 
     The configuration of the bobbin  36  will hereafter be described in detail. Referring to FIGS. 6A and 6B, the thin-walled extension  36   i  is formed between bobbin flange  36   b  and the resin compartment  36   e , and is adapted to bend flexibly. Also, the thin-walled extension  36   f  is adapted to bend flexibly. When, the wire magnet  38  is wound on the coil winding extension  36   g  of the bobbin  36 , the thin-walled extensions  36   f  and  36   i  stay unbent as shown in FIG. 6A thereby not hindering the winding operation, thus the magnet wire  38  can be fully wound all the way up to a flange inner face  36   h  of the bobbin flange  36   b . And, when the salient poles  6  with the bobbin  36  with the magnet wire  38  wound thereon are put in the stator ring  100 , the thin-walled extensions  36   f  and  36   i  bend flexibly as shown in FIG. 6B, whereby the salient poles  6  fit into the stator ring  100  efficiently without taking up an unnecessary space. 
     The resin compartment  36   e  will be described with reference to FIG.  7 . As shown in FIG. 7 as well as in FIGS. 4 and 6A, the bobbin flange  36   b  is provided integrally with the resin compartment  36   e , which is a hollow-triangular prism having two closed end faces, one open flat (in section) side face  36   k  and two closed flat side faces  36   m  and  36   n , and which extends from the very end of the thin-walled extension  36   i  such that the side face  36   n  is positioned behind the plane of the flange inner face  36   h . In the rotary machine of the present invention, with the resin compartment  36   e  thus structured, the open space to be filled with the molding resin  60  is reduced for the volume of the prism compared to the conventional rotary machine shown in FIG. 1, thereby decreasing the amount of the molding resin  60  to be injected in the stator ring  100  thus reducing the material cost (resin cost), and reducing the time for injection resulting in improved production efficiency. Also, this enables a small inexpensive molding machine to be used. 
     In the first embodiment, the hollow-triangular prism as shown in FIG. 7 is used as the resin compartment  36   e  but the present invention is not limited thereto but the present invention may alternatively use, for example, a resin compartment  436   e  as shown in FIG. 8 showing a second embodiment. 
     Referring to FIG. 8, the resin compartment  436   e  is continuous with a bobbin flange via a thin-walled portion  436   i , and is a hollow-semicircular prism having two closed end faces, one open arced (in section) side face  436   k , one closed arced face  436   m  and one closed flat face  436   n.    
     A third embodiment will be described with reference of FIGS. 9A and 9B. FIGS. 9A and 9B show a bobbin  536 , bobbin flanges  536   b  and  536   c , a coil winding portion  536   g , a flange inner face  536   h  of the bobbin flange  536   b , thin-walled extensions  536   f  and  536   i , and a resin compartment  536   j.    
     As shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B, in the third embodiment, the resin compartment  536   j  is formed such that the thin-walled portion  536   i  is extended thereby preventing the magnet wire  38  (not shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B) from becoming unbraided, and keeping the magnet wire  38  free from contact with the stator ring. This resin compartment  536   j  has its inside face positioned flush with or behind the flange inner face  536   f  thereby not hindering the winding operation, and is flexibly bent at the thin-walled extension  536   i  when the salient pole assembly is housed in the stator ring thereby not taking up an unnecessary space unlike the bobbin flange  236   b  in the conventional rotary machine shown in FIG.  11 B. 
     While the present invention has been illustrated and explained with respect to specific embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the present invention is by no means limited thereto but encompasses all changes and modifications which will become possible within the scope of the appended claims.