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US 2026/0159221 A1Published application
Method and System For Protecting a Rotatable Shaft of a Motor from Excessive Bending Moments
AssigneeAeroVironment, Inc.
InventorsEmil Ghapgharan, Lane Dalan, Pavel Belik, Christopher Eugene Fisher, Austin Craig Gunder
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A motor assembly that includes a motor having a motor casing, a rotatable shaft extending from the motor casing to a shaft length and a hub coupled to the rotatable shaft, the hub having a circumferential skid surface disposed immediately proximal to the motor casing and having a channel configured to seat a propeller, when a propeller is present, wherein a bending moment applied to the shaft through the hub results in the circumferential skid surface contacting the motor casing.
Claims20
A method of comprising:
- limiting deformation of a rotatable shaft with reinforcing contact between a first structure and a skid surface of a rotatable hub as the rotatable shaft bends;
- wherein a possibility of damage to a motor by a propeller ground strike is reduced by providing reinforcing contact between the first structure and the skid surface of the rotatable hub during at least a portion of a rotation of the rotatable shaft.
A system comprising:
- a rotatable hub having a skid surface;
- a first structure having a skid face for providing reinforcing contact spaced immediately apart from and in complementary opposition to the skid surface of the rotatable hub;
- wherein a deformation of a rotatable shaft is limited by reinforcing contact between the first structure and the skid surface of the rotatable hub as the rotatable shaft bends;
- and
- wherein a possibility of damage to a motor by a propeller ground strike is reduced by providing reinforcing contact between the first structure and the skid surface of the rotatable hub during at least a portion of a rotation of the rotatable shaft.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.