JP7412204B2 - Motor housing and motor unit - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a motor housing and a motor unit for driving a vehicle used as a drive source for electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and the like.

In recent years, electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and the like have appeared that are equipped with a drive source that is used in place of or in combination with an internal combustion engine. Drive motors used in such electric vehicles, hybrid vehicles, and the like reach high temperatures during driving, so some are known that use water-cooled cooling mechanisms.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses that a cooling water channel is formed within the wall thickness of the motor housing, which connects the cooling water supply port to the cooling water drain port through a U-turn at a waterway bending portion (hereinafter referred to as a U-turn portion). A housing structure for a motor is disclosed.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-213402

However, in a conventional motor housing, when a U-turn portion is provided in the cooling waterway formed within the wall thickness, the rigidity of the U-turn portion becomes lower than that of the surrounding area.

Therefore, if the motor housing receives internal pressure from the stator when the motor stator is shrink-fitted, there is a risk that the motor housing will be damaged because there is no partition wall at the U-turn portion of the cooling water channel.

Furthermore, the motor housing is required to have a predetermined allowable load capacity against loads such as vibrations that occur when the vehicle travels on rough roads.

Note that if the motor housing is made thicker to increase the rigidity of the U-turn portion of the cooling water channel, weight reduction will be hindered, and there will be a trade-off between increasing rigidity and reducing weight.

Therefore, in view of the above circumstances, an object of the present invention is to prevent a decrease in rigidity and an increase in weight of a motor housing and a motor unit for driving a vehicle equipped with a cooling water channel having a U-turn portion, without increasing the wall thickness. shall be.

A motor housing according to one aspect of the present invention is a motor housing for driving a vehicle to which a stator is fastened, and has a first cooling water passage through which cooling water circulates, a water passage bending part, and a second cooling water passage, and has a thick wall. a cooling water channel formed inside, a mount boss part provided on the outer surface corresponding to the position of the waterway bending part and for mounting on the frame of a vehicle , and a mount boss part provided on the mount boss part and located at the waterway bending part. A reinforcing rib that covers the entire area is provided.

A motor unit according to one aspect of the present invention includes a first cooling waterway through which cooling water circulates, a waterway bending portion, and a second cooling waterway, the cooling waterway formed within a wall thickness, and the waterway bending portion. A motor comprising : a mount boss portion provided on an outer surface corresponding to the position of the motor for mounting on a vehicle frame ; and a reinforcing rib provided on the mount boss portion and covering the entire area of the waterway bending portion. The motor includes a housing, the stator thermally coupled to the motor housing, a rotor rotatably disposed within the stator and provided with a rotation shaft, and a cover body coupled to the motor housing.

According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent a reduction in rigidity and an increase in weight of a drive motor housing for a vehicle that includes a cooling water channel having a U-turn portion.

Perspective view showing the configuration of the motor unit Exploded perspective view showing the configuration of the motor unit A perspective view schematically showing a cooling channel formed in the motor housing. Cross-sectional view of motor unit

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of one aspect of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. Note that in the drawings used in the following explanation, the scale of each constituent element is different in order to make each constituent element recognizable on the drawing. The present invention is not limited only to the quantity of the described components, the shape of the components, the ratio of the sizes of the components, and the relative positional relationship of each component.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a motor unit 1 for a vehicle includes a substantially cylindrical motor housing 2 that serves as a main frame and a motor housing for driving the vehicle in this embodiment, and a motor housing 2 that has a substantially cylindrical shape. It has a cover body 3 fastened with a plurality of bolts.

Inside the motor housing 2, there are a cylindrical stator 5 which is a stator around which a coil (not shown) is wound, a rotor 6 which is a rotor rotatably disposed within this stator 5, and this rotor 6. A rotary shaft 7 serving as an output shaft (motor shaft) that is inserted into the rotary shaft 7 and two bearings 8 and 9 mounted on the rotary shaft 7 so as to sandwich the rotor 6 are disposed.

Note that the motor unit 1 is a travel drive motor that constitutes a drive system of an electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle, or the like. The motor unit 1 receives power from a battery (not shown) such as a lithium ion battery, and is driven and controlled via an inverter.

The motor housing 2 is a cast part made of metal such as aluminum alloy. Note that the cover body 3 is also a cast part made of metal such as an aluminum alloy.

As shown in FIG. 3, the motor housing 2 has a cooling water channel 20 formed within its wall thickness, which is a space in which cooling water (cooling medium) R such as a coolant circulates. The cooling water channel 20 is formed along the circumferential direction inside the motor housing 2, and is divided into two regions bisecting the width direction of the motor housing 2 along the axial direction of the rotating shaft 7, which is the motor shaft. It has a cooling water channel 21 and a second cooling water channel 22 on the return side.

The first and second cooling waterways 21 and 22 are communicated with each other by a waterway bending portion 23 serving as a U-turn portion. That is, a partition wall 24 is provided between the first and second cooling channels 21 and 22 to divide the cooling channel 20 into two.

The cooling water channel 20 also communicates with the first hose connector 11, in which the end of the first cooling water channel 21 is a cooling water supply port, and the end of the second cooling water channel 22 is in communication with the first hose connector 11, which is a cooling water drain port. It communicates with the hose connector 12 of No. 2. These first and second hose connectors 11 and 12 are provided on the outer surface of the motor housing 2, and each is connected to a refrigerant circulation hose (not shown) such as a radiator hose. Note that the refrigerant circulation hose is connected to a heat exchanger such as a water pump and a radiator (both not shown).

When the motor unit 1 configured in this manner is driven, cooling water (cooling medium) flows into the cooling water channel 20 inside the motor housing 2 from the first hose connector 11 through the refrigerant circulation hose on the input side when the water pump is operated. The refrigerant is discharged from the second hose connector 12 to the refrigerant circulation hose on the output side.

That is, the cooling water R is supplied from the first hose connector 11 to the first cooling waterway 21, flows through the waterway bending part 23 to the second cooling waterway 22, and is discharged from the second hose connector 12. . Thereby, the heat generated when the motor unit 1 is driven is cooled by the cooling water R that circulates in this order through the first cooling water channel 21, the waterway bending portion 23, and the cooling waterway 22 formed inside the motor housing 2.

In this way, in the motor unit 1, the cooling water R flowing through the cooling water channel 20, which is sent from the first hose connector 11 by the water pump interposed in the flow path of the refrigerant circulation hose, is pumped into the motor housing 2. It absorbs heat generated when the provided stator 5 and the like are driven. The heat-absorbed cooling water R flows from the second hose connector 12 to the refrigerant circulation hose, is discharged outside the motor housing 2, and is cooled by a heat exchanger such as a radiator interposed in the flow path of the refrigerant circulation hose. Ru.

The cooling water R cooled by the heat exchanger is again circulated and supplied into the cooling water channel 20 from the first hose connector 11 through the refrigerant circulation hose. In this way, the motor unit 1 whose temperature increases due to the heat generated when the motor is driven can be cooled by the cooling water R flowing through the cooling water channel 20 inside the motor housing 2.

By the way, the motor housing 2 of this embodiment has a mount boss portion 10 for mounting the motor unit 1 on a chassis (not shown) that is a frame of a vehicle via a connecting member (not shown) such as a mount bracket. are doing.

The mount boss portions 10 here have two substantially cylindrical shapes protruding from the motor housing 2, each having a screw hole 13 formed therein. Further, the mount boss portion 10 is provided with reinforcing ribs 14 and 15 such as connecting ribs and gussets (triangular ribs).

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, at least one of the mount bosses 10 is provided in alignment with the outer surface of the motor housing 2 in which the waterway bent portion 23 of the cooling waterway 20 is formed. Note that the motor housing 2 is provided with a plurality or at least one other mount boss part 16 in addition to the mount boss part 10 (see FIG. 4).

In this way, the motor housing 2 has the cooling water channel 20 formed within its wall thickness, and the partition wall 24 is formed between the first and second cooling water channels 21 and 22 of the cooling water channel 20. , has a predetermined rigidity, but the rigidity becomes weak at the waterway bending part 23, so the mount boss part 10 is provided on the outer surface so as to correspond to the position where the waterway bending part 23 is formed inside. There is.

Thereby, the motor housing 2 is provided with the mount boss portion 10 at a portion where the rigidity becomes weak due to the formation of the waterway bending portion 23 of the cooling waterway 20, thereby ensuring a predetermined rigidity. The mount boss portion 10 preferably includes reinforcing ribs 14 and 15 such as connecting ribs and gussets (triangular ribs) that cover the entire area of the waterway bending portion 23.

In the motor housing 2 configured as described above, even when high stress is concentrated due to the internal pressure from the stator 5 when the stator 5 is shrink-fastened by shrink fitting, the waterway bent portion 23 of the cooling waterway 20 is not formed. Parts can be prevented from being damaged.

Similarly, the motor housing 2 can also satisfy a predetermined allowable load capacity against loads such as vibrations that occur when the vehicle travels on rough roads. Furthermore, since the motor housing 2 is provided with the mount boss portion 10 at the portion where the waterway bending portion 23 of the cooling waterway 20 is formed, there is no need to build up material to increase rigidity, and weight gain can be prevented. Can be done.

As described above, the motor housing 2 of the present embodiment included in the motor unit 1 for driving a vehicle can be constructed without increasing the wall thickness by using the waterway bending portion 23 which is a U-turn portion of the cooling waterway 20 formed inside. Partial decrease in rigidity and weight increase can be prevented.

Note that the motor housing 2 has a post-processed part that provides a core discharge port in place of the mount boss section 10 in the portion where the waterway bending portion 23 of the cooling waterway 20 is formed, and blocks this discharge port. A predetermined rigidity may be ensured by.

Furthermore, since the motor housing 2 can route the refrigerant circulation hoses connected to the first and second hose connectors 11 and 12, the motor housing 2 can accommodate the predetermined position of the mount boss portion 10 that is fastened to the vehicle chassis (not shown). The position of the waterway bending portion 23 of the cooling waterway 20 can be appropriately determined according to the position.

The invention described in the above embodiments is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications can be made at the implementation stage without departing from the spirit thereof. Further, each of the above embodiments includes inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriately combining the plurality of constituent elements disclosed.
For example, even if some constituent requirements are deleted from all the constituent requirements shown in each form, if the stated problem can be solved and the stated effect can be obtained, then this constituent requirement can be deleted. The configuration can be extracted as an invention.

1... Motor unit 2... Motor housing 3... Cover body 5... Stator 6... Rotor 7... Rotating shafts 8, 9... Bearings 10, 16... Mount boss portion 11... First hose connector 12... Second hose connector 13... Screw holes 14, 15...Reinforcing ribs 20...Cooling water channel 21...First cooling water channel 22...Second cooling water channel 23...Water bend 24...Partition wall R...Cooling water

Claims (4)

In a vehicle drive motor housing to which a stator is fastened,
A cooling waterway formed within the wall thickness, having a first cooling waterway through which cooling water circulates, a waterway bending portion, and a second cooling waterway;
a mount boss portion provided on an outer surface portion corresponding to the position of the waterway bending portion and for mounting on a vehicle frame ;
a reinforcing rib provided on the mount boss portion and covering the entire area of the waterway bending portion;
A motor housing comprising: a first connector to which a refrigerant circulation hose is connected and which allows the cooling water to flow into the first cooling waterway;
a second connector to which the refrigerant circulation hose is connected and which discharges the cooling water from the second cooling waterway;
The motor housing according to claim 1, further comprising: Two of the mount boss portions are provided so as to protrude from the outer surface portion,
The motor according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the reinforcing rib has a connecting rib that connects the two mount boss portions at a position where the waterway bending portion is formed inside. housing. The motor housing according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
the stator thermally coupled to the motor housing;
a rotor rotatably disposed within the stator and provided with a rotating shaft;
a cover body fastened to the motor housing;
A motor unit characterized by comprising:

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