Patent GB-1354176-A (GB)
Title: Energy storage device
IPC: F16C39/06
Filed: 1971-07-30
Abstract: 1354176 Motive power for vehicles JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY 30 July 1971 [31 July 1970] 35937/71 Heading B7H [Also in Division F2] An energy storage device comprises, as shown in Fig. 10, a hermetically sealed evacuable housing 66 which generally follows the shape of a rotor 52 except near the axis of rotation 68 of the rotor where it is provided with cylindrical extensions 70, 72 both accommodating dry bearings 74 and respectively a plate 76a of a magnetic coupler 76 and a magnetic suspension device 78. In Fig. 10, the parts A and B are disposed in planes at right angles to each other. The housing 66 is mounted in a first gimbal ring 82 by means of bearings 82a, and the gimbal ring 82 is mounted in a second gimbal ring 80 by means of bearings 80a. If the device is installed in a vehicle with the spin axis vertical, then gimbals 80, 82 act to relieve gyroscopic precessional loads caused by pitching and turning of the vehicle. The rotor 52 is mounted on a two-piece shaft 84 coinciding with the spin axis 68, journalled at each end in the bearings 74, and terminating at its upper end at the plate 76a of the magnetic coupler 76 and at its lower end at a permanent magnet 78a of the magnetic suspension device 78. Plate 766 of the magnetic coupler 76 is disposed outside the housing 66 and driven by an electric motor 86. A shock absorbing suspension 98 stabilizes the device. During power take-off, the electric motor 86 becomes a generator converting mechanical energy to electrical energy for efficient conduction to electric motors, such as at the wheels of a vehicle. Power take-off may, alternatively, be accomplished by means of hydraulic motors and pumps, or an all mechanical system may serve in place of the electric motor 86. Applications of the device range from use as the sole power source of quiet, pollution free urban vehicles to powered portable hand tools. Fig. 2 shows an alternative, bar-shaped rotor formed of straight, parallel, uniaxial filaments 10 bonded together in a matrix 22 of metal, plastics or elastomeric material, one or more layers 24 of filaments having their axes normal  to the filaments 10 being bonded to the rotor to give increased resistance of fanning load stres-  sing. The rotor is bonded within a rectangular, sleeve-like hub 26. The use of certain high  strength continuous filaments, e.g. ordinary music wire or boron filaments to form the rotor does not necessarily require a matrix to maintain the filaments in operative disposition. In a further rotor, as shown in Fig. 3, the filaments 10a are allowed to fan out and align themselves with the local centrifugal force vector acting on each filament. The loose filaments 10a are clamped together between two rounded abutments 19 which form the walls of a hub 18. The performance of the bar-shaped rotor may be  optimized in the manner shown in Fig. 5a so that the major stress component acting on the rotor is constant along its length. The bar 34 has  oppositely facing surfaces which are convex near the centre of the bar and slope to a concave shape near the ends 36 of the bar. The shorter filaments 10s at the centre of the bar act to increase the load-carrying capability of the longer filaments 10e through additional shear load in the matrix. The rotor is mounted in an internal gimbal arrangement 38 (as more clearly shown in Fig. 5b, not shown), which arrangement avoids the use of the large external gimbal rings and their associated bearings shown in Fig. 10. Still further rotors are discshaped (Figs. 7a, 7b, not shown) and wedgeshaped (Figs. 8a, 8b, not shown) produced by the bi-directional fanning of a plurality of strips formed from bonded filaments.