Winding reconfiguration assembly and method for operation of said assembly

A method for operation of a winding reconfiguration assembly, comprising:

• switching a multi-position contactor device in the winding reconfiguration assembly between a first position and a second position based on one or more operating conditions via toggling a polarity of a coil in an electromagnetic actuator, wherein in the first position and the second position stator windings in a multi-phase electric machine are in a first winding configuration and a second winding configuration, respectively;
• wherein the winding reconfiguration assembly includes:
• the multi-position contactor device;
• and
• the electromagnetic actuator;
• wherein the one or more operating conditions includes at least one of an electric machine speed and an electric machine load;
• and
• wherein switching the multi-position contactor device in the winding reconfiguration assembly between the first position and the second position occurs while current to the winding reconfiguration assembly from an inverter is discontinued.

A multi-phase electric machine system comprising:

• a winding reconfiguration assembly comprising:
• a multi-pole and multi-position contactor device designed to switch stator windings in a multi-phase electric machine between a delta or series configuration in a first position and a star or parallel configuration in a second position;
• and
• an electromagnetic actuator designed to switch the multi-pole and multi-position contactor device between the first position and the second position via a transient electrical pulse applied to a coil which changes a polarity of the coil which electromagnetically interacts with a plurality of permanent magnets in the electromagnetic actuator;
• wherein in the first position the multi-pole and multi-position contactor device, a plurality of inlet phase bus bars are electrically coupled to a plurality of flexible return phase bus bars;
• and
• wherein in the second position the multi-pole and multi-position contactor device, the plurality of inlet phase bus bars are electrically decoupled from the plurality of flexible return phase bus bars.