Apparatus for manufacture of laminated parts

Apparatus for blanking from an elongated sheet stock strip material, provided from a supply, electric motor or generator part laminas of said material and stacking said laminas to form a completed stack comprising:

• a blanking station;
• a stacking station;
• first means for guiding said material from the supply to said blanking station;
• second means at said blanking station for blanking laminas in a predetermined planar configuration;
• third means at said stacking station for receiving and stacking the laminas to form a stack having a central axis substantially perpendicular to the lamina plane;
• fourth means coupled to said third means at said stacking station for providing rotation of said stack about said axis relative at least one of said laminas for compensating for thickness variations in said material;
• said third means for interlocking said at least one lamina to an adjacent lamina in said stack after said rotation to retain the relative rotational position of said at least one lamina with said stack;
• fifth means coupled to said fourth means for providing said relative rotation by said fourth means between said stack and an operator entered number of laminas in each stack;
• said fifth means selects said at least one lamina for relative rotation with said stack by comparing the ratio of the total number of laminas in a completed stack times a factor to said operator entered number of laminas times a factor plus or minus a constant;
• said said fifth means compares in the following manner:
• ______________________________________ CONDITION relative rotation ______________________________________ n <
• (N/2Q - 1/2) No (N/2Q - 1/2) <
• n <
• (N/2Q + 1/2) Yes (N/2Q + 1/2) <
• n <
• (1.5N/2Q - 1/2) No (1.5N/2Q - 1/2) <
• n <
• (1.5N/2Q + 1/2) Yes (1.5N/2Q + 1/2) <
• n <
• (2.5N/2Q - 1/2) No (2.5N/2Q - 1/2) <
• n <
• (2.5N/2Q + 1/2) Yes (2.5N/2Q + 1/2) <
• n <
• (3.5N/2Q - 1/2) No (3.5N/2Q - 1/2) <
• n <
• (3.5N/2Q + 1/2) Yes (3.5N/2Q + 1/2) <
• n <
• (4.5N/2Q - 1/2) No (4.5N/2Q - 1/2) <
• n <
• (4.5N/2Q + 1/2) Yes (4.5N/20 + 1/2) <
• n No ______________________________________
• Where:
• N=nominal total number of laminas in a stack;
• Q=number of operator entered stack relative rotations;
• n=the particular lamina number in a stack where n=1 for the first lamina and n=N for the last lamina.

Apparatus for stamping electric motor stator or rotor planar laminas from sheet stock material, provided from a supply, to form a stack of laminas comprising:

• a first stamping station;
• a second stamping station;
• a stacking station;
• first means for guiding sheet stock material from the supply to said first stamping station;
• second means at said first stamping station for stamping arcuately spaced conductor slot openings;
• said openings being radially spaced from a lamina axis of each of the laminas that is substantially perpendicular to the lamina plane;
• third means at said second stamping station for stamping laminas in predetermined planar configurations;
• fourth means at said stacking station for coaxially stacking said laminas so that the lamina axes are coaxial to form a stack having a stack axis substantially coaxial with said lamina axes, said stack axis being substantially perpendicular to the plane of each of said laminas;
• fifth means for providing incremental indexing of each of said laminas rotationally relative said stack about said stack axis a predetermined degree of rotational arc prior to stacking of said each lamina so that said openings form continuous conductor slots having a slot axis skewed to said stack axis by a skew angle corresponding to said degree of rotational arc;
• controller means being coupled to said fifth means and having operator entry means for receiving operator selected and entered parameters of relative skew angle between said slot axes and said stack axis, stack height, and lamina thickness;
• said controller means for automatically providing a signal to said fifth means for arcuately indexing each lamina relative said stack an amount to obtain a stack having slot axes with said entered skew angle.

Apparatus for blanking from an elongated sheet stock strip material, provided from a supply, planar laminas of said material and stacking said laminas to form a completed stack for use in an electric motor or generator comprising:

• a blanking station;
• a stacking station;
• first means for guiding said material from the supply to said blanking station;
• second means at said blanking station for blanking laminas in a predetermined planar configuration;
• third means at said stacking station for receiving and stacking the laminas to form a lamina stack having a central axis substantially perpendicular to the lamina plane;
• fourth means coupled to said third means at said stacking station for providing rotation of said stack about said axis relative at least one of said laminas prior to stacking of said at least one lamina for compensating for thickness variations in said material;
• fifth means for gauging the thickness uniformity of said lamina strip material;
• sixth means coupled to said fifth means for detecting a predetermined thickness nonuniformity of said material;
• seventh means coupled to said fourth and sixth means for actuating said fourth means to cause a number of said relative rotations to compensate for said thickness nonuniformity and provide a stack having a predetermined maximum parallelism error.

Apparatus for blanking from an elongated sheet stock strip material, provided from a supply, planar laminas of said material and stacking said laminas to form a completed stack for use in an electric motor or generator comprising:

• a blanking station;
• a stacking station;
• first means for guiding said material from the supply to said blanking station;
• second means at said blanking station for blanking laminas in a predetermined planar configuration;
• third means at said stacking station for receiving and stacking the laminas to form a lamina stack having a central axis substantially perpendicular to the lamina plane;
• fourth means coupled to said third means at said stacking station for providing rotation of said stack about said axis relative at least one of said laminas prior to stacking of said at least one lamina for compensating for thickness variations in said material;
• controller means being coupled to said fourth means and having operator entry means for receiving an operator selected and entered number of said relative rotations;
• said entered number being any number of the total number of said laminas in said stack;
• said controller means for automatically determining in said stack selected laminas equal in number to said operator entered number of said relative rotations at which a said relative rotation occurs and providing a signal to said fourth means for providing a said relative rotation prior to stacking of each of said selected laminas.

Apparatus for stamping electric motor or generator stator or rotor planar laminas from sheet stock material, provided from a supply, to form a stack of laminas comprising:

• stamping station means for stamping conductor slot openings arcuately spaced about a lamina axis of each of the laminas that is substantially perpendicular to the lamina plane and for stamping laminas in predetermined planar configurations;
• a stacking station;
• first means for guiding sheet stock material from the supply to said stamping station means;
• second means at said stacking station for coaxially stacking said laminas so that the lamina axes are coaxial to form a stack having a stack axis substantially coaxial with said lamina axes, said stack axis being substantially perpendicular to the plane of each of said laminas;
• third means for providing rotational incremental indexing of said stack relative each of said laminas;
• said indexing comprising a first rotation of said stack relative each of said laminas about said stack axis a predetermined degree of a first rotational arc prior to stacking of each of the laminas so that said openings form continuous conductor slots;
• each of said slots having a slot axis skewed to said stack axis by a skew angle corresponding to said degree of rotational arc;
• said third means for providing a second rotation about said stack axis of said stack relative at least one of said laminas;
• said second rotation having a second rotational arc;
• said second rotational arc being in addition to and substantially greater than said first rotational arc;
• said second rotation for compensating for thickness variations in said material.

Apparatus for manufacturing laminated parts wherein the laminas of the parts are blanked from lamina areas on sheet stock and then stacked to form the part, the laminas each having opposite surfaces, comprising:

• first means for measuring the thickness of first and second spaced points for obtaining first and second thicknesses at said first and second points, respectively, for each of a plurality of laminas;
• second means for comparing said first and second thicknesses and determining a thickness differential therebetween;
• third means for selecting laminas to be rotated about a lamina axis substantially perpendicular to the lamina surfaces to provide a lamina stack having a desired parallelism;
• fourth means for rotating the stacked laminas relative the selected laminas about the lamina axis prior to lamina stacking to thereby compensate for said lamina thickness differentials.