Switched reluctance motor

A switched reluctance motor driven by a two-phase source, comprising:

• a stator having a plurality of evenly spaced, angularly-oriented like poles distributed thereon, said stator poles defining a gap between adjacent of said stator poles;
• windings for two phases of the motor wound about stator poles that are circumferentially separated by a winding and an associated stator pole of a different phase;
• and
• a rotor mounted for rotation about an axis relative to said stator, said rotor having at least two adjacent rotor sections of like cross-sections, each of said rotor sections having a wide rotor pole and a narrow rotor pole distributed on each of said rotor sections wherein a narrow rotor pole is disposed to each side of a wide rotor pole in a direction of circumferential rotation, said rotor sections being angularly offset relative to each other about said axis such that energization of one of said two phases causes said wide rotor pole on one of said at least two rotor sections to interact with a first energized stator pole while said wide rotor pole on another of said at least two rotor sections interacts with a second energized stator pole to induce a first torque on said rotor and to produce a first predetermined angular rotation of said rotor, and thereafter said narrow pole on said one of said at least two rotor sections interacts with said second stator pole while said narrow pole on said another of said at least two rotor sections interacts with said first stator pole to induce a second torque on said rotor and to produce a second predetermined angular rotation on said rotor.

A switched reluctance motor, comprising:

• a stator having eight evenly spaced, radially inwardly extending, like stator poles that define a uniform gap between adjacent stator poles, said stator formed from a plurality of laminations formed from a magnetically permeable material, said stator having a uniform cross-sectional shape along an axis extending through said stator;
• winding for two phases wound about stator poles that are circumferentially separated by a winding and an associated stator pole of a different one of said two phases;
• a rotor supported within said stator for a relative rotational movement about said axis, said rotor having at least two rotor sections, said two rotor sections having like cross-sectional shapes along said axis, each of said rotor sections having two, outwardly extending wide rotor poles disposed about 180.degree. apart and two, outwardly extending narrow rotor poles disposed 180.degree. apart, each of said narrow rotor poles being disposed between each of said wide rotor poles in a circumferential direction of rotation, the narrow poles and the wide poles on each of said rotor section being disposed relative to each other, wherein when said rotor is in a first angular rotor position, all of said wide rotor poles of said rotor sections are in said minimum reluctance positions with said energized stator poles, and when said rotor is in a second angular rotor position, all of said narrow rotor poles and all of said wide rotor poles are in minimum reluctance positions with energized stator poles, said first rotor section being angularly offset about said axis from said second rotor section by about 90.degree..

A switched reluctance motor, comprising:

• a stator formed from a magnetically permeable material, having an n number of evenly spaced, radially oriented, like stator poles, said stator poles having like stator pole faces forming a uniform gap between adjacent of said stator poles;
• windings for two phases wound about stator poles that arc circumferentially separated by a winding and an associated stator pole of a different phase;
• a rotor mounted for rotation relative to said stator about an axis, said rotor having at least two rotor sections, a first of said at least two rotor sections including at least 1/4 of said n number of like, wide rotor poles, each having a like, wide rotor pole face, and a second of said at least two rotor sections including at least 1/4 of said n number of like, narrow rotor poles, each having a like, narrow rotor pole face, said rotor having:
• a first angular position wherein a first portion of said wide rotor pole faces of said first rotor section is in alignment with a first pair of opposite, energized stator poles and said narrow rotor pole faces of said second rotor section arc in alignment with gaps adjacent said first pair of energized stator poles, and
• a second angular position wherein a second portion of said wide rotor pole faces of said first rotor section is in alignment with said first pair of opposite energized stator poles and said narrow rotor pole faces of said second rotor section are in alignment with said first pair of energized stator poles.