Method for making an efficient rotor for an electric motor
AssigneeTesla Motors, Inc.
InventorsDavid Lyons, Jeffrey B Straubel, Erik Shahoian, Rudy Garriga
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of making a rotor assembly for an electric motor by adding bars made out of a conducting material such as copper, to spaces between the teeth of a stack of discs, inserting bars referred to as “slugs”, also made out of a conducting material such as copper, in the spaces between the bars on either side of the stack of discs, radially compressing the bars and discs, one or both of which are plated or otherwise coated with a braising material, and then heating the rotor to allow the bars to be braised to the slugs.
Claims9
A method of building at least a component of a rotor, comprising:
- stacking a plurality of discs, each disc comprising a plurality of teeth, to produce a stack of discs;
- adding, between a plurality of the teeth of each of the discs, a plurality of bars, at least some of the plurality of bars having a length longer than the height of the stack of discs;
- radially inserting, between each of at least some of the outer edges of the plurality of bars, a slug, wherein at least one of the slugs and the bars is coated with a braising material;
- applying a removable radial force to the slugs towards a center so as to compress faces of the slugs against faces of the bars;
- heating the slugs, plurality of bars and stack of discs to braise the slugs to the plurality of bars;
- and
- allowing the heated slugs, plurality of bars and stack of discs to cool.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.