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US 10,500,940 B2Granted
Axle assembly having an electric motor module and a gear reduction module
AssigneeArvinMeritor Technology, LLC
InventorsPedro Garcia, Dhanapal Vittala Raya, Christopher Keeney, Wagner Yukio Hirao, David G. Gonska
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An axle assembly having an axle housing, a differential carrier, an electric motor module, and a gear reduction module. The differential carrier may be mounted to the axle housing and may rotatably support a differential. The electric motor module may be disposed in the differential carrier. The gear reduction module may be disposed adjacent to a differential carrier cover and may transmit torque from the electric motor module to the differential via a drive pinion.
Claims24
An axle assembly comprising:
- an axle housing;
- a differential carrier that is disposed on the axle housing and rotatably supports a differential;
- a differential carrier cover that mounted to an end of the differential carrier that is disposed opposite the axle housing;
- an electric motor module disposed in the differential carrier between the axle housing and the differential carrier cover, wherein the electric motor module includes a rotor that is rotatable about an axis;
- and
- a gear reduction module that is disposed adjacent to the differential carrier cover, wherein the gear reduction module transmits torque from the electric motor module to the differential via a drive pinion, wherein the gear reduction module includes a sun Rear that is rotatable about the axis and an adapter that couples the rotor to the sun gear, the adapter including a tubular body that defines an adapter hole and a flange portion that extends from the tubular body away from the axis, wherein the sun gear is received in the adapter hole and the flange portion is fixedly coupled to the rotor.
3 more elements
An axle assembly comprising:
- an axle housing;
- a differential carrier that is disposed on the axle housing and rotatably supports a differential;
- a differential carrier cover that is mounted to an end of the differential carrier that is disposed opposite the axle housing;
- an electric motor module disposed in the differential carrier between the axle housing and the differential carrier cover;
- and
- a gear reduction module that is disposed adjacent to the differential carrier cover, wherein the gear reduction module transmits torque from the electric motor module to the differential via a drive pinion, wherein the gear reduction module includes a compound planetary gear set.
3 more elements
An axle assembly comprising:
- an axle housing;
- a differential carrier that is disposed on the axle housing and rotatably supports differential;
- a differential carrier cover that is mounted to an end of the differential carrier that is disposed opposite the axle housing;
- an electric motor module disposed in the differential carrier between the axle housing and the differential carrier cover;
- and
- a gear reduction module that is disposed adjacent to the differential carrier cover, wherein the gear reduction module transmits torque from the electric motor module to the differential via a drive pinion;
- and
- a shill mechanism housing that is disposed on the differential carrier cover opposite the differential carrier, wherein a planet gear carrier of the gear reduction module is rotatably supported on the shift mechanism housing by a roller bearing assembly.
5 more elements
An axle assembly comprising:
- an axle housing;
- a differential carrier that is mounted to the axle housing and rotatably supports a differential;
- a differential carrier cover that is mounted to an end of the differential carrier that is disposed opposite the axle housing, the differential carrier cover having a gear cavity that is disposed outside of the differential carrier and opposite the differential carrier;
- an electric motor module that is completely disposed in the differential carrier;
- and
- a gear reduction module that is at least partially received in the gear cavity, wherein the gear reduction module transmits torque from the electric motor module to the differential via a drive pinion, wherein lubricant flows between the axle housing and the gear cavity by flowing through the differential carrier.
3 more elements
An axle assembly comprising:
- an axle housing;
- a differential carrier that is disposed on the axle housing and rotatably supports a differential;
- a differential carrier cover that is mounted to an end of the differential carrier that is disposed opposite the axle housing, the differential carrier cover including a gear cavity that is disposed outside of the differential carrier;
- an electric motor module disposed in the differential carrier between the axle housing and the differential carrier cover, the electric motor module including a rotor that is rotatable about an axis;
- a gear reduction module that is disposed adjacent to the differential carrier cover and is at least partially disposed in the gear cavity, wherein the gear reduction module transmits torque from the electric motor module to the differential via a drive pinion, wherein the gear reduction module includes a sun gear that is operatively connected to the electric motor module and rotatable about the axis, a planetary ring gear that is received in the gear cavity and is fixedly positioned with respect to the differential carrier cover, a planet gear that meshes with the sun gear and the planetary ring gear, and a planet gear carrier that rotatably supports the planet gear;
- and
- an adapter that couples the sun gear to the electric motor module, wherein the adapter is disposed in the differential carrier between the axle housing and the differential carrier cover, the adapter including a tubular body that defines an adapter hole and a flange portion that extends from the tubular body and extends away from the axis, wherein the sun gear is received in the adapter hole and the flange portion is fixedly coupled to the rotor.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.