JP5189891B2 - Motor assembly and pump device - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a motor assembly and a pump device, and more particularly to a motor assembly having a cooling structure for efficiently cooling an inverter and a motor.

  A motor is widely used as a drive source for driving the pump. Recently, an inverter-integrated pump motor in which an inverter is attached to a motor is becoming mainstream. The inverter includes a power switching element (for example, an insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT), a power MOS FET, etc.), and the power switching element changes the frequency of the power supplied to the motor to change the rotation speed of the motor. Let

  While driving such a pump motor, the inverter and the motor generate heat. In particular, the power switching element of the inverter generates high heat even though it has a small surface area, resulting in a high temperature. Moreover, since the inverter includes many electronic devices, the heat resistant temperature is lower than that of the motor. Therefore, it is important to efficiently cool not only the motor but also the inverter.

JP 2000-116059 A

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a motor assembly capable of efficiently cooling an inverter and a motor, and a pump device including the motor assembly.

  In one aspect of the present invention for achieving the above-described object, a motor connected to a pump, an inverter fixed to a side portion of the motor and having cooling fins, and a cooling fan connected to a rotating shaft of the motor And a heat exchanger disposed in the vicinity of the cooling fan, a liquid supply line for introducing the liquid pressurized by the pump to the heat exchanger, at least a part of the motor, and the cooling fan, A heat exchanger and a cover disposed through a gap, wherein the heat exchanger is configured to exchange heat between the airflow generated by the cooling fan and the liquid from the pump. A motor assembly.

The preferable aspect of this invention is further equipped with the at least 1 guide member arrange | positioned in the clearance gap between the said motor and the said cover, and the said guide member is the shape which guide | induces the gas from the said cooling fan to the cooling fin of the said inverter. It is characterized by having.
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, a sound absorbing material or a vibration damping material is attached to the inner surface of the cover.

  Another aspect of the present invention is a pump device comprising the motor assembly and a pump driven by the motor assembly.

  According to the present invention, the gas (generally air) from the cooling fan is cooled by the liquid supplied from the pump, and the motor and the inverter can be efficiently cooled by the cooled gas.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a side view showing a pump device including a motor assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention.
The pump device includes a pump 1 that transfers liquid and a motor assembly 2 according to an embodiment of the present invention that drives the pump 1. The pump 1 is driven by the motor assembly 2, sucks liquid from the suction port 1a, pressurizes it, and discharges it from the discharge port 1b. An example of the pump 1 is a multi-stage centrifugal pump, but other types of pumps may be used.

  The motor assembly 2 includes a motor 5 connected to the pump 1, an inverter 6 that controls the rotational speed of the motor 5, and a cover 7 that covers the motor 5. In FIG. 1, a longitudinal section of the cover 7 is shown. As the motor 5, a synchronous motor using a permanent magnet as a rotor is used. This type of motor (Permanent Magnet motor) has a feature that it is more efficient than a general motor and therefore generates less heat. However, it goes without saying that other types of motors may be used. The cover 7 is fixed to the motor 5 by a support portion (not shown).

  A cooling fan 8 is disposed above the motor 5, and this cooling fan 8 is connected to the end of the rotating shaft 10 of the motor 5 (the end opposite to the pump). Therefore, the cooling fan 8 rotates integrally with the rotating shaft 10 of the motor 5. As shown in FIG. 1, a cooling jacket 24 is disposed between the cooling fan 8 and the motor 5. The cooling jacket 24 is disposed in the vicinity of the cooling fan 8. The cooling jacket 24 is a heat exchanger that exchanges heat between the liquid sent from the pump 1 and the gas (generally air) sent from the cooling fan 8.

  The cover 7 has a shape that covers the cooling fan 8, the cooling jacket 24, and the entire motor 5, and a gap is formed between the outer surface of the motor 5 and the inner surface of the cover 7. A plurality of cooling fins 13 are formed on the side surface of the motor 5. An air intake hole (described later) is formed in the upper part of the cover 7, and the air flow is formed in the gap between the cover 7 and the motor 5 by rotating the cooling fan 8. .

2A is a top view of the cover 7, FIG. 2B is a vertical cross-sectional view of the cover 7, and FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2B.
The cover 7 has a shape that surrounds almost the entire cooling fan 8, cooling jacket 24, and motor 5. An air intake hole (gas intake hole) 20 for the cooling fan 8 is formed in the upper part of the cover 7.

  A sound absorbing material 23 is attached to the inner surface of the cover 7. The sound absorbing material 23 is disposed so as to surround the side surface of the motor 5. Here, the sound absorbing material refers to a member that absorbs sound by taking sound inside and converting sound energy into heat energy. Examples of the sound absorbing material 23 include sponge and urethane foam.

  A vibration damping material may be attached to the inner surface of the cover 7 instead of the sound absorbing material 23. In this case, it is preferable to arrange the vibration damping material so as to cover the side surface of the motor 5 as in the above-described sound absorbing material. Here, the damping material refers to a member that reduces solid vibration by converting solid vibration energy into heat energy. Examples of the damping material include a rubber plate and a plastic plate.

  3A is a top view for explaining the positional relationship between the motor 5 and the inverter 6, and FIG. 3B is a view when the motor 5 shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the state without the inverter 6. FIG. The inverter 6 is fixed to the side portion of the motor 5 via the motor side bracket 11 and the inverter side bracket 12. More specifically, the motor side bracket 11 is formed on the side of the motor 5, and the inverter side bracket 12 is formed on the bottom of the inverter 6. The motor side bracket 11 and the inverter side bracket 12 are connected to each other by a bolt (not shown), whereby the inverter 6 is integrally attached to the motor 5. The motor side bracket 11 is formed with a through hole through which a power line extending from the inverter 6 to the motor 5 passes. A through hole connected to the through hole of the motor side bracket 11 is also formed in the inverter side bracket 12.

  4A is a top view of the inverter 6, FIG. 4B is a back view of the inverter 6, and FIG. 4C is a partial cross-sectional view of the inverter 6. The inverter 6 includes a power switching element 15, a control board 16 that controls the operation of the power switching element 15, and a box 17 that houses the power switching element 15 and the control board 16. The power switching element 15 is fixed to the box 17 in contact with the inner surface of the bottom of the box 17. The bottom of the inverter 6 faces the motor 5, and cooling fins 18 are provided on the entire outer surface of the bottom. These cooling fins 18 are close to the outer surface of the motor 5 and are adjacent to the cooling fins 13 of the motor 5.

FIG. 5A is a plan view schematically showing the cooling jacket 24, and FIG. 5B is a top view of the motor assembly 2. In addition, in FIG.5 (b), the cover 7 is shown with an imaginary line.
The cooling jacket 24 includes a jacket 27 made of a metal having good thermal conductivity, and a liquid flow path 28 extending meandering through the jacket 27. The ends of the liquid flow path 28 communicate with an inflow line (liquid supply line) 25 and an outflow line (liquid return line) 26, respectively. A through hole 27 a into which the rotary shaft 10 is inserted is formed at the center of the jacket 27. The liquid supplied from the pump 1 flows through the inflow line 25, the cooling jacket 24, and the outflow line 26 in this order, and is returned to the pump 1 again.

  The cooling jacket 24 is connected to the pump 1 via an inflow line 25 and an outflow line 26 through which liquid flows. The end of the inflow line 25 is connected to the discharge side flow path of the pump 1, and the end of the outflow line 26 is connected to the suction side flow path of the pump 1. When the pump 1 is driven, a differential pressure is generated between the discharge-side flow path and the suction-side flow path of the pump 1, and part of the liquid transferred by the pump 1 passes through the inflow line 25 due to this differential pressure. Then, it flows into the cooling jacket 24, passes through the cooling jacket 24, and returns to the pump 1.

  In the above configuration, when the rotating shaft 10 of the motor 5 is rotated, the pump 1 is driven and the cooling fan 8 is rotated at the same time. A part of the liquid transferred by the pump 1 is sent to the cooling jacket 24 through the inflow line 25. On the other hand, when the cooling fan 8 rotates, air (gas) flows into the cover 7 from the air intake hole 20. This air hits the cooling jacket 24 and is cooled by heat exchange with the liquid. The cooled air flows through the gap between the cover 7 and the motor 5, passes between the cooling fins 13 and 18, and flows out from the cover 7.

  While the air flow is in contact with the cooling fins 13, 18, heat exchange is performed between the air and the cooling fins 13, 18, thereby cooling the motor 5 and the inverter 6. As shown in FIG. 4C, the power switching element 15 is in contact with the bottom of the box 17, and the cooling fin 18 is formed on the bottom, so that the power switching element 15 having a large heat generation can be efficiently cooled. Can do.

FIG. 6 is a plan view showing a modification of the cooling jacket. In this example, radially extending fins 30 are formed on the upper surface of the cooling jacket 24 (the surface of the jacket 27 facing the cooling fan 8). The fins 30 increase the surface area of the cooling jacket 24 and form a uniform air flow covering the entire circumference of the motor 5.
Instead of the cooling jacket 24, as shown in FIG. 7, a cooling pipe 29 constituted by a curved pipe may be used as a heat exchanger.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 8 is a side view showing a pump apparatus including a motor assembly according to another embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment has the same basic configuration as that of the above-described embodiment, but differs from the above-described embodiment in that it has a structure in which the air cooled by the cooling jacket 24 is concentrated on the inverter 6. Yes. That is, a guide member 35 that guides the air flow from the cooling fan 8 to the inverter 6 is provided in the gap between the inner surface of the cover 7 and the outer surface of the motor 5. In FIG. 8, the cover 7 is indicated by an imaginary line. In addition, since the structure of this embodiment which is not demonstrated in particular is the same as that of embodiment mentioned above, the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

  9A is a view of the cover 7 shown in FIG. 8 as viewed from below, and FIG. 9B is a view of the cover 7 of FIG. 9A as viewed from the arrow C. FIG. FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line DD of FIG. The lower end (pump side end) of the cover 7 is formed obliquely, and a guide member 35 that is inclined along this end is fixed to the inner surface of the cover 7. The guide member 35 is composed of an annular plate that is partially cut off, and is inclined downward toward the inverter 6. The guide member 35 is located in a gap between the inner surface of the cover 7 and the outer surface of the motor 5, and is formed so as to close the gap at the lower end of the cover 7.

  FIG. 10 is a view for explaining the flow of air formed by the rotation of the cooling fan 8. As shown in FIG. 10, the rotation of the cooling fan 8 causes air (gas) to flow into the cover 7 from the air intake hole 20 and is cooled by the cooling jacket 24. This cooled air forms a downward flow in the gap between the motor 5 and the cover 7. The air flows toward the guide member 35 along the outer surface of the motor 5, and the traveling direction thereof is directed to the inverter 6 by the guide member 35. Then, the air flows between the cooling fins 18 provided at the bottom of the inverter 6, thereby cooling the inverter 6. Thus, since the air flow can be concentrated on the inverter 6 by the guide member 35, the inverter 6 can be effectively cooled.

  In general, since the motor 5 has a large surface area of a stator (coil) that is a heat generating part, it is easy to dissipate heat, and cooling is relatively easy. On the other hand, since the inverter 6 has a small surface area of the power switching element 15 that is a heat generating part, it is difficult for cooling by heat dissipation to proceed. Furthermore, since the inverter 6 has many electronic devices, the heat resistant temperature is lower than that of the motor 5. According to this embodiment, since the air flow formed by the cooling fan 8 can be forced to the inverter 6, the air flow intensively hits the inverter 6 and the flow velocity of the air flow is increased. Thus, the heat transfer rate is improved, and the inverter 6 can be cooled quickly.

  Cooling fins 13 are provided on the side surfaces of the motor 5 that are not covered by the cover 7. Since air from the cooling fan 8 flows along a part of the motor 5, this air flow also contributes to cooling of the motor 5. Further, the motor 5 is cooled by the cooling fins 13. The surface area of the cooling fin 13 of the motor 5 is larger than that of the cooling fin 18 of the inverter 6 and the heat-resistant temperature of the motor 5 is relatively high. Therefore, the motor 5 is sufficiently cooled by the cooling fin 13 and the air flow. can do.

  A plurality of guide members 35 can also be provided. Further, the guide member 35 can be provided not on the inner surface of the cover 7 but on the outer surface of the motor 5. Furthermore, also in this embodiment, the cooling jacket 24 may have the radial fins 30 shown in FIG. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 11A and FIG. 11B, a sound absorbing material or a vibration damping material may be attached to the inner surface of the cover 7.

In each embodiment mentioned above, although the cooling jacket 24 is arrange | positioned between the cooling fan 8 and the motor 5, this invention is not limited to this arrangement | positioning. For example, the cooling jacket (heat exchanger) 24, the cooling fan 8, and the motor 5 may be arranged in this order, and the air sucked by the cooling fan 8 may be cooled by the cooling jacket 24. In this case, the cooling jacket 24 may be covered with the cover 7 together with the cooling fan 8, or may be disposed close to the cooling fan 8 outside the cover 7.
Although the cooling jacket 24 has been described here, the cooling pipe 29 shown in FIG. 7 may be provided.

  The pump device described above is a so-called vertical pump device in which the rotation shaft of the pump extends in the vertical direction. This type of pump device has the advantage of a smaller footprint and footprint. However, the present invention is not limited to this and may be a horizontally installed pump device.

  The embodiment described above is described for the purpose of enabling the person having ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention belongs to implement the present invention. Various modifications of the above embodiment can be naturally made by those skilled in the art, and the technical idea of the present invention can be applied to other embodiments. Therefore, the present invention should not be limited to the described embodiments, but should be the widest scope according to the technical idea defined by the claims.

It is a side view which shows the pump apparatus provided with the motor assembly which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 2A is a top view of the cover, FIG. 2B is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the cover, and FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 2B. FIG. 3A is a top view for explaining the arrangement relationship between the motor and the inverter, and FIG. 3B is a plan view of the inverter when the motor shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows a state without. 4A is a top view of the inverter, FIG. 4B is a back view of the inverter, and FIG. 4C is a partial cross-sectional view of the inverter. FIG. 5A is a plan view schematically showing the cooling jacket, and FIG. 5B is a top view of the motor assembly. It is a top view which shows the modification of a cooling jacket. It is a top view which shows the cooling pipe as a heat exchanger. It is a side view which shows the pump apparatus provided with the motor assembly which concerns on other embodiment of this invention. FIG. 9A is a view of the cover shown in FIG. 8 as viewed from below, FIG. 9B is a view of the cover of FIG. 9A as viewed from arrow C, and FIG. It is the DD sectional view taken on the line of 9 (a). It is a figure for demonstrating the flow of the air formed by rotation of a cooling fan. Fig.11 (a) is a figure which shows the example which attached the sound absorption material or the damping material to the inner surface of the cover, FIG.11 (b) is the EE sectional view taken on the line of Fig.11 (a).

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Pump 2 Motor assembly 5 Motor 6 Inverter 7 Cover 8 Cooling fan 10 Rotating shaft 11 Motor side bracket 12 Inverter side bracket 13 Cooling fin 15 Power switching element 16 Control board 17 Box 18 Cooling fin 20 Air intake hole 23 Sound absorbing material or damping Shaking material 24 Cooling jacket 25 Inflow line 26 Outflow line 27 Jacket 28 Liquid flow path 29 Cooling pipe 30 Fin 35 Guide member

Claims (4)

A motor coupled to the pump;
An inverter fixed to the side of the motor and having cooling fins;
A cooling fan connected to the rotating shaft of the motor;
A heat exchanger disposed in the vicinity of the cooling fan;
A liquid supply line for guiding the liquid pressurized by the pump to the heat exchanger;
Covering at least a part of the motor and the cooling fan, the motor and a cover disposed via a gap,
The motor assembly is configured to exchange heat between an air flow generated by the cooling fan and a liquid from the pump. Further comprising at least one guide member disposed in a gap between the motor and the cover;
The motor assembly according to claim 1, wherein the guide member has a shape that guides gas from the cooling fan to a cooling fin of the inverter.   The motor assembly according to claim 1, wherein a sound absorbing material or a vibration damping material is attached to an inner surface of the cover. A motor assembly according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
And a pump driven by the motor assembly.

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