Patent ID: 8598762

Claim:
A permanent magnet rotating electric machine comprising: a stator including: a stator core having a plurality of teeth; and an armature winding wound around each of the plurality of teeth to configure multiple phases, wherein the armature windings are wound in same phase and in reverse directions around adjacent teeth; a rotor having a radius Rr and including: a rotor core; and a plurality of permanent magnets provided in order in a peripheral direction around the rotor core; and a roughly polygonal metal tube surrounding the rotor, wherein the rotor is arranged to be spaced apart from the stator with an air gap therebetween, and wherein each of the permanent magnets has a curved surface opposed to the stator and is configured to satisfy the following relationship: 0.65 ≤ Rm × h ⁢ ⁢ 1 W ⁡ ( h ⁢ ⁢ 1 + g ) ≤ 1.37 where Rm denotes a radius of curvature of the curved surface, h 1 denotes a thickness of a central portion of the permanent magnet in the peripheral direction, W denotes a width of the permanent magnet in the peripheral direction, and g denotes an air gap length of the air gap, wherein Rm<Rr, and wherein the roughly polygonal metal tube surrounding the rotor engages the curved surfaces of the permanent magnets opposed to the stator over the majority of the circumferential length of each of the permanent magnets and does not follow a circular arc, centered on the center of radius Rr, at the circumferential locations of the permanent magnets over the majority of the circumferential length of each of the permanent magnets, such that the roughly polygonal metal tube surrounding the rotor follows a convex circular arc centered on the center of radius Rm inside the metal tube over the majority of the circumferential length of each of the permanent magnets, wherein the rotor core includes a projection portion, and wherein the roughly polygonal metal tube does not engage with the projection portion of the rotor core, wherein the rotor core is polygonal, each of said permanent magnets being provided on one of the polygonal surfaces, wherein the projection portion is provided between two adjacent permanent magnets, is made of magnetic substance and projects from the polygonal surfaces to which said two adjacent permanent magnets are provided, wherein the projection portion and each of the permanent magnets are configured to satisfy the following relationships, h 3 /h 2≧0.38 and h 1 ≧h 3 where h 1 is as previously denoted, h 2 denotes a thickness of an end portion of the curved surface of the permanent magnet in the peripheral direction, and h 3 denotes a height of the projection portion relative to the polygonal surfaces to which said two of the permanent magnets are provided.