Stator Core Bending via Notched Slots and Laser Welding
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing methods for manufacturing stator cores in vehicular alternators, which involve laminating thin steel plates with bonding materials and forming concave and convex portions, face challenges such as increased costs, complex gap management, and potential damage during bending deformation, leading to unstable product quality and impracticality for mass production.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves forming concave and convex portions on the borderline between compressive and tensile regions of the stator core, where compressive and tensile stresses occur, and using CO2 laser welding to integrate the thin steel plates, reducing the binding force between adjacent plates and minimizing stress-induced gaps and magnetic noise.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If bonding material is applied to thin steel plates and heated/pressurized to integrate them, then the thin steel plates are laminated and integrated to form element iron cores, but both cost and man-hours increase
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the bonding material from the integration process. Instead of using bonding material that requires heating and pressurizing, the patent uses mechanical fitting engagement between convex and concave portions to integrate thin steel plates directly, removing the costly and time-consuming thermal processing step while maintaining reliable integration
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces the thermal-mechanical bonding system (heating and pressurizing bonding material) with a purely mechanical fitting system. The convex and concave portions create mechanical interlocking that integrates thin steel plates without requiring thermal processing, thereby reducing both cost and manufacturing time
2Reliability
If bonding material is used to integrate thin steel plates, then lamination integration is achieved, but management of gaps between adjacent thin steel plates becomes complicated and product quality stability decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies local quality by creating asymmetric convex and concave portions at specific locations on the thin steel plates. These localized geometric features provide precise mechanical guidance for alignment and fitting, eliminating the need for complex gap management while ensuring consistent integration quality across all plates
Solution Approach 2:
The convex and concave portions are pre-formed on the thin steel plates before lamination. This preliminary action of creating the fitting features ensures that when plates are stacked, they automatically align and fit together without requiring complex gap management during assembly, thereby improving quality stability
3Reliability
If bonding material is used to integrate element iron cores, then lamination integration is achieved, but damage or peeling or falling off of the bonding material occurs during bending deformation
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts and eliminates the bonding material from the integration process. By using mechanical fitting engagement between convex and concave portions instead of bonding material, the patent avoids the problem of bonding material damage, peeling, or falling off during bending deformation entirely
Solution Approach 2:
The convex and concave portions create a curved, interlocking interface between adjacent thin steel plates. This curved geometric engagement provides mechanical interlocking that maintains integration strength during bending deformation without relying on bonding material adhesion
4Strength
If CO2 laser welding is used to integrate thin steel plates, then binding force reduction is suppressed, but equipment complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The convex and concave portions are designed to create self-aligning mechanical interlocking that automatically maintains proper positioning and binding force between thin steel plates during assembly and operation. This self-service mechanism eliminates the need for complex laser welding equipment while ensuring adequate integration strength
Data Source
AI summary
An alternator of high quality and high performance includes a rotor, a stator core arranged so as to surround the rotor and having a plurality of axially extending slots arranged at a predetermined circumferential pitch, and a stator having a stator winding fitted into the slots. The stator core includes element iron cores of a hexahedral shape which are deformed to curve, with their adjacent end faces being abutted and bonded to each other, each of the element iron cores being composed of thin steel plates laminated and integrated with one another, with concave and convex portions formed on the thin steel plates being fitting with each other. The concave and convex portions are formed on a borderline between a compressive region of the stator core at an inner diameter side thereof and a tensile region of the stator core at an outer diameter side thereof.