US 11,673,639 B2Granted

Reluctance driven axial modulating mechanism for rotating shafts realizing a controllable pitch propeller/fan/turbine

AssigneeJordan McBain

InventorJordan James McBain

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

This patent discloses improvements over a mechanism to modulate the pitch of the blades of a fan, turbine or propeller driven by a rotating shaft bearing a helical thread onto which a nut made of a ferromagnetic material was threaded; this nut was spun by electromagnets disposed about it on the stator system and its resultant axial motion manipulated the blades' pitch. This patent discloses refinement of control of the electromagnets employed to spin the axial modulator by embedding a plurality of ferrous protuberances in this nut—the rotational position of which is determined via metallic edge detection sensors whose logic levels are used to selectively energize electromagnets that apply a force onto the protuberances in order to induce rotation and axial motion on the nut. This additional degree of rotational freedom is controlled by this reluctance-motor like configuration while a second motor is used to spin the blades.

Claims18

Dependent claims

An apparatus for a reluctance-driven axial modulating mechanism including;

a stator system (20),
a rotating system (22) rotatably mounted in said stator system (20),
a rotor thread (24) consisting of a helical thread affixed on said rotating system (22),
an axial modulator (32) having a helical thread capable of mating threadedly to said rotor thread (24),
said axial modulator (32) being threadedly mated to said rotor thread (24),
an axial modulating mechanism (35) comprised of at least one electromagnet(s) affixed to said stator system (20) and disposed about said axial modulator (32),
each of said electromagnets in said axial modulating mechanism (35) comprised of windings of insulated electrically conductive material having leads through which electric current may be routed,
and characterized by,
said axial modulator (32) having at least one reluctance protuberance(s) (33),
each of said axial modulator's (32) reluctance protuberance(s) (33) having a constitution that would cause said reluctance protuberance(s) (33) to accelerate when exposed to a magnetic field,
an electronics control unit (ECU) (44) having circuits connected to the leads of at least one of said axial modulating mechanism's (35) electromagnets,
said electronics control unit (ECU) (44) circuits are configured to selectively switch electric current to each of said axial modulating mechanism's (35) electromagnets connected to said electronics control unit (ECU) (44) in order to cause said axial modulator (32) to rotate.

9 more elements

An apparatus for controllable pitch blades including;

a stator system (20),
a rotating system (22) rotatably mounted in said stator system (20), an axial modulator (32),
said axial modulator (32) and said rotating system (22) having a threaded interaction,
an axial modulating mechanism (35) comprised of at least one electromagnet(s) affixed to said stator system (20) and disposed about said axial modulator (32),
each of said electromagnets in said axial modulating mechanism (35) comprised of windings of insulated electrically conductive material having leads through which electric current may be routed,
a plurality of controllable-pitch blade(s) (28) rotatably mounted in said rotating system (22),
one or more blade(s) in said plurality of controllable-pitch blade(s) (28) formed to transfer mechanical energy between said rotating system (22) and a fluid in which one or more of said controllable-pitch blade(s) (28) are immersed,
said axial modulator (32) having axial motion induced by rotation on said axial modulator (32) relative to said rotating system (22) and the constraints imposed by said axial modulator's (32) threaded interaction with said rotating system (22) when electrical current is applied to said axial-modulating mechanism's (35) electromagnets,
a pitch manipulator (46) being rotatably mounted within said axial modulator (32) and constrained so that said pitch manipulator (46) is coupled with said axial modulator's (32) axial motion,
said pitch manipulator (46) having a mechanical interaction with said controllable-pitch blade(s) (28) to cause its axial motion to cause each of said controllable-pitch blade(s) (28) to vary their pitch,
and characterized by,
said axial modulator (32) having at least one reluctance protuberance(s) (33), one or more of said axial modulator's (32) reluctance protuberance(s) (33) having a constitution that would cause the respective reluctance protuberance(s) to accelerate when exposed to a magnetic field,
an electronics control unit (ECU) (44) having circuits connected to the leads of at least one of said axial modulating mechanism's (35) electromagnets,
said electronics control unit (ECU) (44) circuits being capable of selectively switching electric current to each of said axial modulating mechanism's (35) electromagnets in order to cause said axial modulator (32) to rotate.

11 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.