Patent ID: 8533933

Claim:
A method for manufacturing and preparing for assembly a suitor core of a generator, the stator core having a central cylindrical bore along a longitudinal axis of the stator core, the method comprising: in a first step, mounting a first press plate onto a tooling device and concomitantly and/or subsequently positioning a plurality of key bars to be manufactured in an axial direction with respect to the longitudinal axis in a spaced manner along a peripheral circumference of the first press plate; in a second step after the first step, stacking a plurality of generator laminations onto the first press plate and mechanically coupling the plurality of generator laminations with the plurality of key bars; in a third step after the second step, mounting a second press plate onto the plurality of generator laminations, fixing the second press plate to at least one of the plurality of key bars and at least one axial fixing device and exerting axial stress on the first and the second press plates; providing a support element and performing one of the following steps: (i) mounting the support element before the first step so as to position an axial end of the support element on the tooling device so as to define a position of the cylindrical bore, (ii) mounting the support element after the first step so as to position the axial end of the support element on the tooling device so as to define the position of the cylindrical bore, (iii) axially inserting the support element into the cylindrical bore after the second step, or (iv) axially inserting the support element into the cylindrical bore after the third step; and releasably fixing the support element to the stator core so as to support the stator core during at least one of handling, transporting and winding after the third step.