Patent ID: 7365462

Claim:
An alternator comprising: a rotor having a rotor shaft directly connected to an engine to be driven by the engine; a cooling fan connected to a front axial end of the rotor; a stator disposed outside of the rotor; and a frame for rotatably supporting the rotor and for fixedly holding the stator therein, wherein: the stator comprises a cylindrical stator core having a plurality of slots and a stator winding formed with a plurality of conductor segments and disposed in the slots, several conductor segments being disposed in each slot to form several layers therein, a portion of conductor segments led out from the slots forming a front coil end, conductor segments led out from a same level layer in the slots being bent in a circumferential direction of the stator core with a substantially equal inclination forming substantially uniform gaps between neighboring conductor segments; and the frame includes cooling air outlet windows formed at a radial outside of the front coil end and cooling air inlet windows formed at an axial front end of the frame facing the engine, so that cooling air taken into the alternator from the cooling air inlet windows by the cooling fan flows out of the cooling air outlet windows through the gaps between the neighboring conductor segments in a direction away from the engine, and a rear end surface of the cooling air outlet windows is sloped toward the rear side so that the cooling air flowing out of the cooling air outlet windows is directed away from the engine.