Cooling of an integrated variable-speed drive and motor

Abstract

An electrical motor and drive (10) comprises a motor unit (13) having a stator (32) and a rotor (33) disposed inside a housing (29), the rotor (32) being supported inside the annular stator (33) by a shaft (30) which is rotatably mounted to the housing (29) by bearings (39). A variable speed drive unit (11) of the motor (10) comprises a plurality of electronic components (35), an elongate flow duct (19) and heatsink having elongate fins (17) which extend along the flow duct (19). A fan unit (12) is disposed between the motor and drive units (11, 13), the fan portion comprising a centrifugal fan (25) mounted on the shaft (30) and having a central air intake which faces axially towards the drive unit (11). The flow duct (19) extends to the fan intake so that the fan (25) draws air along the flow duct (19) to efficiently dissipate heat from the fins (17) and is expelled radially.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.