Patent ID: 8004127

Claim:
A rotary reluctance motor comprising: a set of inner disks each having an inner diameter root, an outer diameter free end, and a plurality of alternating high permeability teeth and low permeability material segments; a set of outer disks interleaved with the inner disks to form a disk stack with an average axial clearance between disks of the disk stack, each outer disk having an outer diameter root, an inner diameter free end, and a plurality of alternating high permeability teeth and low permeability material segments; an end disk at the end of the disk stack and a gap between the end disk and at least one of the adjacent flux return portion and the disk adjacent to the end disk, wherein said gap is substantially larger than the average axial clearance between disks of the disk stack; flux return portions disposed axially adjacent the disks at each end of the disk stack; and a coil associated with the roots of one of the sets of disks configured to provide axial flux through the disk stack to rotate one set of disks with respect to the other set of disks.