Electric Machine Housing with Bilateral Seal Cooling Jacket
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing housing configurations for electric machines in constricted spaces face challenges in achieving compact designs with low material, machine, and time-related costs, while maintaining effective cooling and torque support.
Innovation Solution
A housing configuration featuring a sleeve pushed onto the stator with bilaterally acting seal carriers providing axial sealing, where the stator receiving region's wall forms the radially outer cooling-jacket surface and the sleeve forms the radially inner surface, allowing for a compact, cost-effective, and easily producible design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If a cooling jacket with integrated torque support is used, then the housing configuration achieves compact design and effective cooling, but the manufacturing complexity and precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The housing configuration is divided into separate functional components: the housing body with stator receiving region, the cooling jacket as a separate element, and the torque support structure. This segmentation allows each component to be manufactured independently with lower precision requirements and then assembled, reducing overall manufacturing complexity while maintaining compact design.
Solution Approach 2:
The housing wall serves multiple functions simultaneously: it provides structural support, forms the radially outer cooling-jacket surface, and contributes to torque support. This multi-functionality reduces the number of separate components needed, achieving compact design without proportionally increasing manufacturing complexity.
2Reliability
If high precision manufacturing is used to ensure proper sealing and cooling, then the cooling effectiveness is improved, but the production time and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
A seal element is introduced as an intermediary component between the cooling jacket and the housing/stator assembly. This seal element ensures proper sealing and cooling effectiveness without requiring high precision manufacturing of the main housing components, thereby maintaining production speed and reducing costs.
Solution Approach 2:
The design allows for adjusted clearance tolerances and gap dimensions in the cooling jacket assembly, changing the geometric parameters to accommodate standard manufacturing capabilities. This maintains cooling effectiveness through adequate flow paths while enabling faster, lower-cost production.
3Ease of manufacture
If separate components are used for sealing and torque support, then the manufacturing cost and complexity are reduced, but the assembly time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The torque support function is integrated into the housing structure through the bearing shield and housing wall design, while sealing is handled by the cooling jacket assembly. This merging of functions into existing structural elements avoids adding separate assembly steps, maintaining manufacturing simplicity without increasing assembly time.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration enables the construction of a compact, cost-effective housing with improved heat transfer and reduced precision requirements, facilitating quick installation and efficient liquid cooling of the stator, while separating sealing and torque-support functions.
Implementation Method 1
a cooling jacket surrounding the stator for liquid cooling of the stator
Implementation Method 2
liquid cooling of the stator... inlet and outlet for the cooling liquid
Data Source
AI summary
A housing configuration for an electric machine includes a housing having a stator receiving region with a wall. A stator is disposed in the stator receiving region of the housing and a sleeve is pushed onto the stator. A cooling jacket surrounds the stator for liquid cooling of the stator. The cooling jacket has a radially outer cooling-jacket surface and a radially inner cooling-jacket surface with a gap between the radially outer cooling-jacket surface and the radially inner cooling-jacket surface. The wall of the stator receiving region forms the radially outer cooling-jacket surface of the cooling jacket. The sleeve forms the radially inner cooling-jacket surface of the cooling jacket. Bilaterally acting seal carriers are inserted into the gap between the radially outer cooling-jacket surface and the radially inner cooling-jacket surface. The bilaterally acting seal carriers provide an axial sealing of the cooling jacket. An electric machine is also provided.