United States Patent (19) 11 Patent Number: 4,890,024

Hashimoto et al. (45. Date of Patent: Dec. 26, 1989

54) LOW-SPEED HIGH-TORQUE MOTOR 56 References Cited
U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS
75 Inventors: Ichiro Hashimoto; Kosho Ishizaki, 4,501,980 2/1985 Welburn ........................... 310/49 R
both of Hitachi; Hiroshi Hayashida, 4,638,195 l/1987 Lin ......... ... 310/49 R
Mito; Kunio Miyashita, Hitachi, all 4,687,961 8/1987 Horber ................................ 310/216
of Japan
Primary Examiner-Patrick R. Salce
Assistant Examiner-Judson H. Jones
(73) Assignee: Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Antonelli, Terry & Wands
21 Appl. No.: 184,120 57 ABSTRACT
A large number of teeth are formed on the outer cir
(22 Filed: Apr. 21, 1988 cumference of a rotor. A stator is disposed around the
rotor. The stator has multiple magnetic poles whose
(30) Foreign Application Priority Data number is n times the number of phases. Each pole has
formed on its surface a plurality of teeth at a pitch equal
Apr. 24, 1987 (JP) Japan .................................. 62-998.42 to the rotor tooth pitch. The teeth mounted on the
adjacent magnetic poles are selected to deviate in pitch
Sll Int. Cl* ............................................. HO2K 37/00 one-half or thereabout from the rotor teeth and the
52 U.S. C. .................................. 310/49 R; 310/185; adjacent poles are to be opposite phases from each
310/216; 310/254 other.
58 Field of Search ..................... 310/49 R, 179, 180,
310/184, 185, 198, 216, 254 2 Claims, 2 Drawing Sheets
U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 1989 she 1 of 2 4,890,024
A/G /

ANGLE (DEGREE)
U.S. Patent Dec. 26, 1989 Sheet 2 of 2 4,890,024

A/G. 4.
A/OAp AAP/
 4,890,024
1. 2
mental motor, the torque produced varies from 200gf
LOW-SPEED HIGH-TORQUE MOTOR cm to 600 gf-cm, the largest being three times as large
as the smallest. m
FIELD OF THE INVENTION In the low-speed high-torque motor, even slight
5 torque ripples and cogging torques present a problem.
The present invention relates to a motor and more
specifically to a low-speed, high-torque motor with a In addition, this type of motor has a problem of charac
Small cogging torque. teristic variations among individual motors.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION When there is no center deviation or deflection, the
Low-speed, high-torque motors have a wide range of 10 magnetic flux variations in each pole are sinusoidal as
applications as direct drive (DD) motors no reduction shown in FIG. 2 if we neglect the tooth pitch error and
gear interposed. One example of use is a source for hysteresis saturation of the core material. The two mag
driving the arm of a robot. The motor described in the netic fluxes of opposing phases cancel each other mak
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63974/1984 published ing the total flux at every angle constant. However, the
on April 11, 1984 in the title of "Motor for High-torque 15 actual products have manufacturing errors and bearing
robot', also belongs to this field of art. clearances, so that the center deviation or deflection
A motor of this kind has teeth on the rotor and stator cannot be eliminated.
and produces a very large torque by arranging the sta On the other hand, the permeance is not proportional
tor along the inner and outer circumferences of the 20
to the gap difference because the flux extends not only
rotor. from the opposing tooth surfaces but from the sides of
By referring to FIGS. 3 through 5, the low-speed the teeth. Therefore, in a motor with a center deviation
high-torque motor structure will be explained below. and deflection, the flux variations of each phase differ
Designated 1 is a rotor which has a magnet 2 that is from those of the other phase for both the DC and AC
magnetized in the axial direction. The rotor 1 has at components, so that these fluxes cannot cancel each
each end a yoke 3 which has teeth formed on its outer 25
circumference. other producing a cogging torque. The amounts of
The flux going out of the magnet 2, as shown by the center deviation and of deflection vary from one prod
arrow in FIG. 3, passes the yoke 3 and the gap between uct to another and their directions (phase) also differ,
the rotor and the stator and enters the stator. It then making it impossible to cancel the flux variations by a
passes through the gap again and the rotor yoke 3 on the 30 controlling means. Thus, solving the above problem by
other side and then returns to the magnet2. Many teeth structural improvements has been called for.
are formed on the outer circumference of the rotor and
on the inner circumference of the stator. The rotor has SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
90 teeth at even pitches and the stator has 10 teeth in An object of the present invention is to provide a
each magnetic pole. There are eight magnetic poles that 35 low-speed high-torque motor which is able to reduce
are arranged at equal pitches. The rotor teeth are the rotational variations at low speeds.
spaced 4 degrees from each other and the stator poles Taking advantage of the fact that in the above-men
are arranged at 45-degree intervals with 10 teeth on tioned ideal condition where there is no center devia
each pole spaced 4 degrees from each other.
The gap between the rotor and the stator is made as 40 tion and deflection the magnetic flux can be made con
stant by canceling the flux variations between the mag
small as 70 to 100 am to increase the flux density.
Since in the prior low-speed high-torque motor in this netic poles of opposite phases, this invention arranges
field the gap between the rotor and the stator is made the windings on the adjacent poles in such a way as to
very small, a cogging torque results, producing varia make them opposite in phase to each other to reduce the
tions in motor rotation. Unless the cogging torque is 45 permeance variations between the opposing phases,
removed, a smooth rotation cannot be expected. thus making it possible to reduce the cogging torque
The cogging torque is variations in torque produced even when there is center deviation or deflection.
in the motor when the rotor in a deemergized state is Two adjacent magnetic poles which are arranged
rotated by external force. The cogging torque results opposite in phase to each other and which, because of
from variations in magnetic flux which in turn are SO their close positional relationship, are affected by the
caused by variations in permeance of the gap between structural errors such as center deviation and deflection
the rotor and the stator as the motor rotates. Factors to the same degree have almost the same permeance
that cause permeance variations include errors in the variations and variation patterns that act upon the two
tooth pitch of the stator and rotor and in the tooth poles. Since they are opposite in phase, the fluxes cancel
width, stator pole pitch errors, deviation of centers of 55 each other suppressing the flux variations over the en
the stator and the rotor, and deflection of the rotor in tire circumference of the air gap, which in turn reduces
operation. The tooth pitch errors of the stator and the the cogging torque that results from the flux variations.
rotor, the tooth width errors and the stator pole pitch
errors depend on the accuracy of the pressing patterns BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
since these components are pressed in the patterns. FIG. 1 is a front view of the stator, representing one
There are few variations among individual compo embodiment of this invention;
nents. The center deviation and deflection, however,
are caused by factors involving the assembly process FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the relation between the
and there are variations in error among individual mechanical angle and the magnetic flux;
components. As mentioned above, since the gap in the 65 FIG. 3 is a half-sectioned view of a motor to which
motor of this type is very small, even a slight center this invention applies;
deviation or deflection will result in greater torque FIG. 4 is a front view of the conventional stator; and
variations than in other types of motors. In an experi FIG. 5 is a front view of the rotor of this invention.
 3
4,890,024
4.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE larities is 90', it is reduced to a very small angle of 22.5
with this embodiment.
PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
When, for example, a center deviation of 20 um exists
The stator of this invention that makes use of the in the direction of phase A, the conventional motor will
aforementioned advantages is shown in FIG. 1. The have a gap difference of 20 um between the phase A
rotor, as shown in FIG. 5, has 90 teeth on the outer and the opposite phase A. With this invention, however,
circumference at equal four-degree pitches. The stator it was found that this gap difference is reduced to 4.3
of FIG. 1 has a total of 16 magnetic poles in two phases um, about one-fifth the conventional gap difference.
as indicated by P1 through P16 with five teeth formed This means the reduced flux variation between the
in each pole. O positive and negative phases and therefore the reduced
The pitch of the teeth on each stator pole is four cogging torque.
degrees, equal to the rotor tooth pitch. It is noted, how According to the actually measured values, the cog
ever, that the position of each stator pole (phase) rela ging torque produced in this embodiment is 50 to 70
tive to the rotor is slightly deviated and its relationship gf-cm, about to the conventional value.
is shown in the table below.
15 Although the above description deals with a motor of
an inner rotor type, the same can also be said of an outer
The table shows the deviation angle between the rotor type motor which falls under the technical scope
teeth on the stator poles P2 through P16 and the rotor of this invention."
teeth with the teeth on the pole Pl are aligned with the The low-speed high-torque motor of the present in
rotor teeth. 20 vention also attains the characteristic shown in FIG. 2.
While this invention describes the two-phase motor,
Devia- Devia- devia- Devia
it is apparent that the above method can also be applied
Pole tion Pole tion Pole tion Pole tion to motors of three or more phases.
No. angle No. angle No. angle No. angle 25 According to the invention, in a motor in which a
P1 0. P5 2 P9 O P13 2.
rotor has many teeth formed on its outer circumference;
P2 2.5 P6 O.S. P0 2.5 P14 0.5 and in which a stator disposed around the rotor has a
P3 1. P7 3. Pl 1 P15 3. plurality of magnetic poles, its number being n times the
P4 3.5" P8 1.5 P12 3.5 P16 1.5 number of phases, each pole having formed on its sur
face a plurality of teeth at a pitch equal to the rotor
30 tooth pitch; the magnetic poles are so arranged that the
Since the motor of this embodiment has two phases, if adjacent poles are reverse in phase to each other to
the pole P1 is taken as positive, the complete opposite significantly reduce the cogging torque. As a result a
phase is the poles P5 and P13 that have their teeth devi motor without a rotation speed variation can be ob
ated from the rotor's by a half pitch or two degrees. In tained.
other words the latter two poles are 180 electrical de-35 What is claimed is:
grees apart from the first pole P1. 1. A hybrid type low-speed high-torque stepping
Phase A and phase B are 90 electrical degrees apart motor comprising a rotor having a large number of
(tooth deviation: 1 in mechanical angle) and the mag teeth formed on an outer circumference thereof, and a
netic poles P1 through P16 assume either positive phase stator disposed around the rotor and facing the teeth of
A or B or negative phase A or B as shown in FIG. 1. the rotor, whose number is n times a number of phases,
For the poles with 0.5 tooth deviations, they as each pole having formed a plurality of teeth on a sur
face thereof at a pitch equal to the rotor tooth pitch,
sume either a positive or a negative phase whichever is adjacent
closer. poles are wound by coils in opposite direc
tions, respectively, and provide opposite phases,
There are fractional angles of 0.5 and this results wherein each of the adjacent
from the arrangement where the stator poles are spaced 45 thereof magnetic poles have teeth
deviated from the motor
at equal pitches to eliminate the core directivity, im of the tooth pitch, the teeth on eachteeth by about one-half
prove work efficiency, and enhance the dimension ac in a substantially identical configuration. pole being formed
curacy of the slot area and slot opening.
The magnetic poles have the phase as shown in FIG. 50 1, 2.wherein
A low-speed high-torque motor according to claim
the adjacent magnetic poles are arranged so
1, and each pole has on one side an adjacent pole which that permeance variations between opposite phases are
is reverse in phase. Further, while in the conventional reduced and cogging torque of the motor is reduced.
motor the angle between the positive and negative po k t k K

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