Patent ID: 7591063

Claim:
A method of making an armature, comprising: placing a commutator and a lamination stack on a armature shaft, the commutator having a commutator ring with a plurality of segments with slots between adjacent segments, the commutator ring having notches at axial inner ends of the slots, the notches filled with an electrically non-conductive material, each segment having a tang at an axial inner end; attaching ends of coil windings wound in slots in the lamination stack to the tangs of the commutator segments; placing the armature shaft, commutator and lamination stack in a mold having projections that extend between the tangs; molding plastic around at least portions of the armature shaft, commutator and coil windings; preventing the plastic from flowing into the slots between the commutator segments from sides of the slots by the projections creating thin wall flow regions; and preventing the plastic from flowing axially into the slots from inner ends of the slots by the non-conductive material filled notches.