Shaft Grounding Ring with Deformable Discharge Tabs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing shaft grounding solutions, such as those with conductive filaments or wave grounding rings, face challenges in efficiently dissipating frequency-variable interference voltages from electric motors, leading to bearing damage and EMC issues, and are often complex and costly to produce, with difficulties in adapting to changes in shaft rotation direction.
Innovation Solution
A shaft grounding ring with an elastically deformable discharge body featuring tab-shaped sections of varying lengths, which increase the contact surface area and ensure uniform voltage dissipation, allowing for better long-term discharge of induced voltages and improved durability, while being cost-effective and simple to manufacture.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conductive filaments are used in shaft grounding rings, then electrical charge dissipation is achieved, but manufacturing complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The discharge body is segmented into multiple tab-shaped sections of different lengths that project radially inward. These sections are arranged circumferentially to create multiple contact tracks on the shaft, replacing the filament structure with a simplified monolithic design that maintains charge dissipation functionality while reducing manufacturing complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The invention extracts the essential function of charge dissipation from the complex filament structure and implements it through a simplified disc-shaped discharge body with tab sections. The core functionality is preserved while eliminating the need for separate filament components and their associated complex assembly processes
2Reliability
If conductive filaments are used in shaft grounding rings, then charge dissipation is achieved, but adaptability to rotation direction changes is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The tab sections are designed to be elastically deformable, allowing them to dynamically adapt to changes in shaft rotation direction. The elastic properties enable the sections to flex and maintain contact with the shaft surface regardless of rotation direction, providing inherent adaptability without mechanical adjustment
3Ease of manufacture
If single-length discharge sections are used, then manufacturing is simple, but contact area and voltage dissipation efficiency are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The discharge body features tab sections with locally varied lengths, where each section's length is optimized for its specific position and function. This local quality variation increases the total contact area and creates multiple contact tracks on the shaft, enhancing voltage dissipation efficiency while remaining manufacturable through standard forming processes
4Reliability
If sections of different lengths are evenly distributed, then uniform voltage dissipation is achieved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The tab sections are designed with asymmetric length variations, where sections alternate between longer and shorter lengths in a predetermined pattern. This asymmetric design creates uniform voltage dissipation across the discharge body by ensuring even distribution of contact pressure and current density, while the patterned arrangement simplifies manufacturing by providing clear positioning guidelines
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
The solution provides enhanced voltage discharge efficiency, reduced abrasion, and longer component durability by increasing the contact surface area and allowing for uniform voltage dissipation, while being cost-effective and adaptable to changes in shaft rotation direction.
Implementation Method 1
A shaft grounding ring (1) with an elastically deformable discharge body (10) featuring tab-shaped sections (16, 17) of varying lengths
Implementation Method 2
The shaft grounding ring can be used to dissipate electrical charges or voltages from the motor shaft (1)
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The shaft grounding ring serves to dissipate induced voltages or electrical charges from a first machine element to a second machine element. The shaft grounding ring has a housing made of electrically conductive material, which is electrically connected to one machine element and is in electrically conductive contact with at least one annular discharge body. It consists at least partially of an electrically conductive material and is in electrically conductive contact with the other machine element. The discharge body has an annular section (14) from which elastically deformable, tab-shaped sections (16, 17) of different lengths project. In the installed position of the shaft grounding ring, these differently sized sections (16, 17) form different contact patterns on the shaft. This significantly increases the contact area between the discharge body and the shaft, resulting in particularly good dissipation of the voltages or charges.Cargo is guaranteed.