Electric motor torsional decoupling

Abstract

A motor assembly 10 includes a DC motor 12 having a motor housing 14 defining a stator, a rotor assembly 18 supported for rotational movement with respect to the stator, and a shaft 22 coupled to the rotor assembly for rotation about an axis of rotation A. The assembly 10 includes a supporting structure 30 carrying the motor and decoupling structure 32. The decoupling structure 32 mounts the motor housing 14 to the supporting structure 30 in a manner to provide a certain natural frequency of the motor in torsion around the axis of rotation A of the shaft 22 while providing natural frequencies higher than the certain natural frequency for degrees of freedom of the motor other than torsion. The assembly 10 also includes pivot structure 44 and 46, associated with the supporting structure and the motor defining a pivot between the motor and the supporting structure with a center of the pivot being aligned with the axis of rotation.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.