Patent ID: 7619333

Claim:
A vehicle alternator comprising: a stator having a stator winding; a rotor having a field winding; a rotary shaft to which the rotor is fixedly mounted and carrying thereon slip rings; a frame surrounding the stator and the rotor; a bowl-shaped end cover covering an end face of the frame and defining an electric component-part compartment together with the end face of the frame for accommodating the slip rings carried on the rotary shaft; a brush unit held in sliding contact with the slip rings in the electric component-part compartment; and a rectifier unit accommodated in the electric component-part compartment on a radial plane in opposition to the brush unit with respect to an axis of the rotary shaft; the rectifier unit including: an insulating terminal block radially extending in face-to-face relation to the one end face of the frame; a positive-side cooling fin carried on one surface of the insulating terminal block; and a negative-side cooling fin carried on the other surface of the insulating terminal block; wherein at least one of the insulating terminal block and the end cover has a heat shield plate member laterally extending through a radial space between the cooling fins and the brush unit in a direction substantially parallel to the axis of the rotary shaft; and wherein the heat shield plate member includes first and second heat shield plate portions provided on the insulating terminal block and the end cover, respectively; and the first and second heat shield plate portions laterally extend in an overlapped relationship with a given radial space.