Permanent magnet electric machine with flux control
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsFeng Liang, John Michael Miller
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electric machine or assembly 10 including a generally cylindrical ferromagnetic housing 12, two substantially identical and opposed stator assemblies 14, 16 which are fixedly mounted within housing 12, a generally disc-shaped rotor 18 which is disposed between stator members 14 and 16 and which is coupled to a rotatable shaft 20, and a generally circular and stationary field coil 22, which is fixedly mounted within housing 12 and is controllably and selectively engergizable to vary the output voltage, power, or torque provided by assembly 10.
Claims9
An electric machine comprising:
- a housing;
- a pair of stators which are fixedly disposed within said housing and which each include a core and a winding;
- a first rotor which is rotatably mounted to a shaft and which is disposed between said pair of stators, said rotor having a first plurality of permanent magnets, a first plurality of consequent poles, a second plurality of permanent magnets which cooperate with said first plurality of permanent magnets to selectively generate a first magnetic flux, and a second plurality of consequent poles which cooperate with said first plurality of consequent poles to selectively generate a second magnetic flux;
- and
- a field coil, said field coil being fixedly and circumferentially mounted within said housing;
- and
- a controller which is operatively coupled to said field coil and which selectively provides power to said field coil, thereby causing said field coil to selectively vary said second magnetic flux.
A method for providing an electric machine having a controllable output voltage, said method comprising the steps of:
- providing a ferromagnetic housing;
- providing a rotor having a plurality of permanent magnet poles which selectively generate a first magnetic flux and a plurality of consequent poles which selectively generate a second magnetic flux;
- disposing said rotor within said housing;
- providing a stator having winding;
- disposing said stator within said housing and in relative close proximity to said rotor;
- providing a field coil;
- fixedly disposing said field coil in relative close proximity to said rotor;
- selectively energizing said winding effective to produce torque between said rotor and said stator, said torque having a magnitude;
- and
- selectively energizing said field coil, effective to vary said second magnetic flux, thereby controlling said magnitude of said torque.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.