Stator for electric rotating machine

A stator for an electric rotating machine, the stator comprising:

• a hollow cylindrical stator core having a plurality of slots and a pair of axial end faces, the slots being formed in a radially inner surface of the stator core and spaced in a circumferential direction of the stator core, the axial end faces being opposite to each other in an axial direction of the stator core;
• and
• a stator coil comprised of a plurality of electric wires mounted on the stator core, each of the electric wires having a plurality of in-slot portions, each of which is received in a corresponding one of the slots of the stator core, and a plurality of turn portions each of which connects one adjacent pair of the in-slot portions of the electric wire and is located outside the slots of the stator core,
• wherein
• each of the turn portions of the electric wires is stepped to have a plurality of parallel parts that extend substantially parallel to a corresponding one of the axial end faces of the stator core,
• for each pair of the turn portions of the electric wires, which respectively protrude out of an adjacent pair of the slots of the stator core, the parallel parts of one of the turn portions overlap corresponding ones of the parallel parts of the other turn portion in the axial direction of the stator core,
• between each overlapping pair of the parallel parts of the turn portions, there is provided a clearance for keeping them apart from each other, and
• the clearance between one of the overlapping pairs of the parallel parts, which is positioned furthest from the corresponding axial end face of the stator core among all the overlapping pairs of the parallel parts, is largest among all the clearances between the overlapping pairs of the parallel parts.