Patent ID: 8643247

Claim:
An electric motor comprising: a yoke formed in a bottomed cylindrical shape; permanent magnets being arranged on an inner peripheral surface of the yoke and generating four magnetic poles formed of alternately arranged magnetic poles; an armature including a rotary shaft journalled on the yoke, an armature core formed with a plurality of teeth and fixed onto the rotary shaft, an armature coil wound around the teeth of the armature core, a commutator having a plurality of segments formed from a conductive material and fixed onto the rotary shaft, and a connecting wire connecting two segments arranged to face each other back to back around the rotary shaft among a plurality of segments of the commutator, the armature being surrounded by the permanent magnets and accommodated within the yoke; and a first brush, a second brush, and a third brush coming into sliding contact with the segments of the commutator of the armature, wherein the number of the teeth of the armature core and the number of the segments of the commutator are the same number, and are any of fourteen, eighteen, and twenty two, wherein the teeth of the armature core are formed point-symmetrically, wherein the first brush and the second brush are arranged apart by an angle of substantially 90 degrees from each other, wherein the third brush is arranged apart by an angle exceeding 90 degrees from the first brush and second brush, wherein the first brush is connected to a common potential, wherein an electric current for rotating the armature at low speed is selectively supplied to the second brush, wherein an electric current for rotating the armature at high speed is selectively supplied to the third brush, wherein a width of the third brush is made smaller than a width of the second brush, and wherein the third brush is arranged at a position where the third brush does not come into sliding contact with an equipotential segment connected by the connecting wire to a segment of the commutator coming into sliding contact with the second brush.