WO2013037449A2

WO2013037449A2 - Electromotive pump assembly

Info

Publication number: WO2013037449A2
Application number: PCT/EP2012/003549
Authority: WO
Inventors: Uwe Klippert; Maik RÜMMLER; Alwin Macht; Anto Mijac; Gerald Terraz
Original assignee: Brose Fahrzeugteile Gmbh & Co. Kommanditgesellschaft, Coburg
Priority date: 2011-09-12
Filing date: 2012-08-22
Publication date: 2013-03-21
Also published as: WO2013037449A3; DE112012003781A5

Abstract

The invention relates to an electromotive pump assembly (1), in particular a water pump of a motor vehicle, having an electric motor (12), a printed circuit board (13), control electronics and a pump impeller (9) in a pump housing (2). The pump impeller is arranged coaxially with respect to the motor axis (10) of the electric motor (12a) in a fluid channel (6) and is driven by said electric motor, wherein the pump housing (2) comprises a first housing chamber (4), in which the electric motor (12) is arranged, and a second housing chamber (5) radially spaced therefrom, in which the printed circuit board (13) is arranged.

Description

description

Electromotive pump unit

The invention relates to an electromotive pump unit, in particular a water pump of a motor vehicle, according to the preamble of claim 1.

From DE 10 2010 036 934 A1 an electric water pump with a pump housing is known in which an electric motor with a rotor rotatable about a rotor axis and a coaxial thereto stator and a drive device and a coaxial to the rotor axis and driven by the rotor impeller in a helical fluid channel are arranged.

In the known water pump, the pump housing has chambers for the rotor, the stator and the drive device, wherein the drive chamber is attached in the axial direction on the opposite side of the pump wheel. The impeller is screwed on the front side of the rotor or motor shaft.

Such an axial arrangement of a drive unit or circuit board for a stator winding of an electric water pump is also known from DE 10 2009 047 575 A1. There, the rotor and the coaxial thereto stator are separated by a so-called canned, wherein a portion of the wall of the can, on which flows past the liquid to be pumped, is used to deliver the heat generated in power devices to the flowing liquid, thereby cooling those become. The wall of the can serves as a separation between the liquid-conducting area and the separated, non-liquid-conducting area of the pump housing and thus for the indirect cooling of the power components.

The invention has for its object to provide an improved electric or electromotive pump unit, in particular a water pump of a motor vehicle. In particular, a reduced power requirement for the pump unit can be achieved. Also, the greatest possible reduction of required components and / or a reduction of the weight of the pump unit should be achieved.

This object is achieved by the features of claim 1. Advantageous embodiments, developments and variants of the invention are the subject of the dependent claims.

For this purpose, the electromotive pump unit has a pump housing with a first housing chamber and a second housing chamber, which is radially spaced from the first housing chamber in relation to the motor axis of an electric motor, also referred to below as a rotor axis. While in the first housing chamber of the rotor and coaxially thereto the stator of the electric motor are arranged, a printed circuit board of an electronics or at least a number of electronic components is arranged in the second housing chamber. The electronics serve to control the electric motor and in particular to control a stator coil or rotary field winding.

The electric motor-driven impeller is arranged in a preferably spiral-shaped fluid channel with a coaxial to the rotor axis first duct nozzle, in particular as a fluid inlet, and a tangential second duct nozzle, in particular as a fluid outlet.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, a sealing plane substantially orthogonal to the rotor axis is formed within the pump housing both for the sealing of the electric motor and for the sealing of the printed circuit board or electronics with respect to the fluid channel. In the sealing plane is suitably a first circumferential sealing element (O-ring) for sealing the electric motor and a second circumferential sealing element (O-ring) for sealing the circuit board. The seal for the electric motor is preferably circular, while the seal for the circuit board or electronics is substantially rectangular or square. The pump housing consists essentially of a half-shell-shaped housing lower part and a cover-like housing upper part. The two housing parts are connected to one another, preferably screwed together in the manner of a flange connection. The lower housing part preferably forms the sealing plane, in which the circumferential seals of the electric motor and the printed circuit board or the electronics in the radial direction are adjacent.

The upper housing part preferably forms the pump cover or a part thereof. In addition, the fluid channel is expediently formed in the upper housing part, while in the lower housing part the first housing chamber for the electric motor, i. for the stator and rotor, and the second housing chamber for the printed circuit board or electronics are provided. The lower housing part is preferably closed and includes in particular on the side facing the housing lower side of the sealing plane or from this, wherein coaxial with the rotor axis, an opening or recess, in particular a circular passage opening is provided for only the impeller. This protrudes in the mounted state of the pump housing in the upper housing part and there into the fluid channel. There suitably aligned the circular end face of the impeller with the coaxial to the rotor axis spigot.

In a further, particularly advantageous embodiment, which is regarded as an independent invention, the impeller is integrally or integrally connected to the rotor. For this purpose, the impeller is expediently partially formed by a plastic extrusion of the rotor, in which the rotor is enclosed or of which the rotor is at least partially encased.

Furthermore, a particularly suitable embodiment of the pump assembly provides a cooling element for cooling the printed circuit board or the electronics or parts thereof, in particular for cooling electronic components. The cooling element is designed, for example, in the manner of a cooling plate. In this case, the cooling element is thermally connected to the circuit board on the one hand and to the fluid channel on the other. The connection to the printed circuit board is suitably a direct con- timing, while the connection to the fluid channel is designed as indirect contact.

For this, the cooling element, i. a section associated with the fluid channel, integrated in the upper housing part, preferably surrounded by the material or plastic material of the pump housing or the upper housing part, in particular encapsulated. Also, that portion of the cooling element that produces the thermal connection to the printed circuit board or electronics, completely or partially in the housing material, preferably the upper housing part, integrated, surrounded by this or be encapsulated. The cooling channel associated with the portion of the cooling element is preferably designed as a peripheral portion or shell portion of a cylindrical shape. The cylindrical contour is adapted to a cylindrical contour of the fluid channel, in particular in the region of the tangential section of the fluid channel opening into the second channel connection. The portion of the cooling element associated with the fluid channel thus at least partially wraps around the corresponding portion of the fluid channel within the housing material. As a result, the largest possible heat exchanger surface between the medium flowing in the fluid channel, in particular water, and the cooling element is provided.

The advantages achieved by the invention are in particular that in a cooling circuit, which is associated with the pump unit according to the invention, a Entdrosselung is achieved with reduced power requirements for the pump unit. In addition, a component reduction is achieved, in particular in the one-part embodiment of the impeller with the rotor encapsulation. Also, a weight reduction of the pump unit is achieved by the total high plastic content, namely at least the pump housing and the impeller.

In addition, an improvement in the efficiency of the electric motor and thus the pump unit (turbine) is achieved. As a result of the use of a high-speed concept with a comparatively high power density, it is furthermore particularly advantageous to reduce the size of the pump unit, in particular special in terms of its axial extent achieved. Furthermore, the integration of the cooling element preferably embodied as a cooling plate into the housing upper part or into its housing material leads to a particularly advantageous cooling concept for electronic components mounted on the printed circuit board, in particular for driving the electric motor of the electronic control unit used.

An embodiment of the invention will be explained in more detail with reference to a drawing. Show:

1 is a perspective view of the pump unit with a lid-like upper housing part with helical fluid channel and with a sealed to the opposite housing base,

Fig. 2, the pump unit of FIG. 1 with removed

Upper housing part and view of a blech-like cooling element,

1 in a representation according to FIG. 1, the pump unit with the upper housing part removed, with a view of a sealing plane with the pump impeller coaxial seal and adjacent to a printed circuit board or electronic seal without cooling element,

4 shows the stator and rotor of a pump motor driving the electric motor below the purpose coaxial seal and the circuit board or electronics below the associated sealing within the sealing plane,

5 shows the arrangement of FIG. 4 in a bottom view,

Fig. 6 shows the arrangement of FIG. 4 and 5 in a side view and

Fig. 7 in a view according to FIG. 4, the arrangement without a stator with

View of the rotor with impeller integrated in its encapsulation.

Corresponding parts are provided in all figures with the same reference numerals. Fig. 1 shows the pump unit 1 with a pump housing 2, which is composed of a lower housing part 2a and a housing upper part 2b. The preferably cup-shaped housing lower part 2a and - the completely or only partially or partially cup-shaped - lid-like housing upper part are connected to each other by means of a number of screws. The screw connections are arranged in the manner of a flange connection substantially in the outer region of the pump housing 2. The pump unit 1 is in particular a water pump of a motor vehicle.

The lower housing part 2a has or forms a first housing chamber 4 for receiving an electric motor 12 and a second housing chamber 5 for receiving a printed circuit board or electronics 13 for controlling the electric motor 12 (FIG. 4). The upper housing part 2b has in the region of the first housing chamber 4 -. axially above this housing chamber 4 - a helical fluid channel 6 for a fluid to be pumped with an axial duct stub 7 as an inlet and a tangential duct stub 8 as a fluid outlet. A impeller 9 of the pump unit 1 can be seen via the inlet-side duct connection 7.

2 and 3 show the pump unit 1 with the upper housing part 2b removed with a view to a motor or rotation axis 10 of the impeller 9 orthogonal sealing plane 11 for a separate sealing of the electric motor 12 shown in detail in Fig. 4 as wet rotor on the one hand and the circuit board 13 of the control electronics for the electric motor 12 on the other. For sealing the electric motor 12 within the sealing plane 11 a coaxial with the axis of rotation 10 seal in the form of a circular sealing element or O-ring 14 is provided. Another seal in the form of a sealing element or O-ring 15 within the same sealing plane 11 serves to seal the printed circuit board 13 or electronics. The outer contour of the sealing element 15 or the seal for the electronics or printed circuit board 13 is substantially rectangular.

On the circuit board 13, a number of electronic components 16, for example, mounted in SMD technology. The ers receiving the electric motor 12 In the illustrations according to FIGS. 2 and 3, the housing chamber 4 and the second housing chamber 5 accommodating the printed circuit board 13 are below the sealing plane 11. In FIG. 2, star-shaped and specially shaped pump or turbine blades 17 of the impeller 9 are comparatively clearly recognizable ,

FIG. 2 also shows a cooling element 18, also referred to below as a cooling plate, which serves for the thermal connection of the printed circuit board 13 or some electronic components 16 mounted thereon to the fluid channel 6. The connection is provided in the region of a tangential channel section 19 (FIG. 1) which opens into the outlet-side channel connecting piece 8 of the fluid channel 6 or via which it discharges out of the pump housing 2. The cooling plate 18 comprises a printed circuit board 13 associated plate-like plate portion 18a and a fluid channel 6 associated circular arc-shaped or cylindrical plate portion 18b, which extends around the tangential channel portion 19 of the fluid channel 16 over a portion of its circumference.

As is comparatively clear from Fig. 1, the cooling plate 18 is integrated at least in the region of the fluid channel 6 and thus associated with the sheet metal portion 18b in the preferably made of plastic material of the upper housing part 2b of the pump housing 2, preferably of the material of the upper housing part 2b molded. Also, the plate-like plate portion 18a of the cooling plate 18 is expediently at least partially, if necessary, with the release of the printed circuit board 13 facing plate side of this sheet metal portion 18a integrated into the upper housing part 2b and this encapsulated by the material. In the thermal connection region of the cooling plate 18 to the circuit board 13 there are essential electronic components to be cooled in the form of semiconductor switches (thyristors or MOSFET) of the control electronics for the electric motor 12 are arranged. The cooling plate 18 is thus only indirectly in contact with the fluid flowing in the fluid channel 6 due to the integration in the upper housing part 2b. The cooling plate 18 is preferably in direct contact with the printed circuit board 13 with respect to suitable heat conduction or convection. 4 to 6 show the arrangement and configuration of the electric motor 12 and the circuit board 13 of the control electronics without pump housing 2 in a plan view, in a bottom view and in a side view. The electric motor 12 has a rotor 12a mounted rotatably about the motor or rotor axis 10 and a stator 12b, which is coaxial therewith, surrounding the rotor 12a, with a stator-side rotating field winding 20. This is electrically connected via a terminal contact system 21 with contact elements with the circuit board 13 of the control electronics. Like the rotor 12a, the impeller 9 is seated on the axis of rotation 10. The rotor 12a is provided with (not visible) permanent magnets. The rotor axis 10 is mounted on the motor side opposite the impeller 9 in a central bearing hub 22 of a spoke-like end shield 23. The end plate 23 is located in the first housing chamber 4 a bottom side. The bearing of the electric motor 12 or its rotor 12a is preferably carried out by means of a ceramic plain bearing.

The comparatively clearly visible in FIGS. 5 and 6 components 16, which are based on the illustrations in FIGS. 2 to 4 mounted on the plate underside of the circuit board 13, are in the first housing chamber 4 radially adjacent the second housing chamber 5 a.

FIG. 7 shows the pump unit 1 in a representation according to FIG. 4 without the pump housing 2 and with the stator 12b removed, so that the rotor 12a can be seen. This designed as a rotor core and provided with the permanent magnets rotor 12a is preferably completely, but at least partially encapsulated in plastic, wherein the axially arranged on or coaxial with the rotor 12a impeller 9 is at least partially formed by this plastic extrusion 24 of the rotor 12a.

The invention thus relates to an electromotive pump unit 1, in particular water pump of a motor vehicle, with in a pump housing 2 an electric motor 12 and a circuit board 13 a control electronics and a pump 9, in a fluid passage 6 to the motor shaft 10 of the electric motor 12a arranged coaxially and driven by this. The pump housing 2 suitably has a first housing chamber 4, in which the electric motor 12 is arranged, and a radially spaced second housing chamber 5, in which the circuit board 12 is arranged.

The invention is not limited to the embodiment described above. Rather, other variants of the invention can be derived therefrom by the person skilled in the art without departing from the subject matter of the invention. In particular, all the individual features described in connection with the exemplary embodiment can also be combined with each other in other ways, without departing from the subject matter of the invention.

Thus, the thermal connection of the cooling element 18 to the circuit board 13 on the one hand and to the fluid channel 6 on the other hand is an independent invention. The at least partially integration of the cooling element 18 in the upper housing part 2b of the pump housing 2, preferably by at least partially encapsulation of the cooling element 18 from the material of Housing top 2b, represent advantageous embodiments of this aspect of the invention alone.

The one-piece or one-piece design of the impeller 9 from the plastic extrusion 24 of the rotor 12a of the electric motor 12 of the pump unit 1 is an independent invention.

Likewise, the sealing concept of preferably composed of a lower housing part 2a and a housing top 2b pump housing 2 of the pump unit 1, ie the orthogonality of the sealing plane 11 of both the electric motor 12 and its control electronics or printed circuit board 13, in particular for the suitably separate sealing of the electric motor 12 on the one hand and the circuit board 13 and electronics on the other hand, an independent invention. LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1 pump unit / water pump

2 pump housings

a housing base

b housing upper part

screw

first housing chamber second housing chamber

fluid channel

first duct connection (fluid inlet) second duct connection (fluid outlet)

impeller

10 motor roto-roto

11 sealing level

2 electric motor

2a rotor

2b stator

3 circuit board / electronics

4 sealing / O-ring

5 sealing / O-ring

6 electronic component

7 turbine blade

8 cooling element / sheet

8a plate-like sheet metal section 8b cylindrical sheet metal section 9 tangential channel section

0 coil / rotating field winding

1 connection contact system

2 bearing hub

3 end shield

4 plastic extrusion

Claims

claims

1. Electromotive pump unit (1), in particular water pump of a motor vehicle, with in a pump housing (2) about a rotor axis (10) rotatable rotor (12a) and a coaxial thereto stator (12b) of an electric motor (12) and with a circuit board ( 13) electronics for controlling the electric motor (12) and having a pump wheel (9) which is coaxially arranged in a fluid channel (6) to the rotor axis (10) of the rotor (12 a) and driven by this,

- wherein the pump housing (2) has a first housing chamber (4) and a second housing chamber (5) radially spaced therefrom relative to the rotor axis (10),

- Wherein in the first housing chamber (4) of the electric motor (12) is arranged, and

- Wherein in the second housing chamber (5), the circuit board (12) of the control electronics of the electric motor (12) is arranged.

2. Pump unit (1) according to claim 1,

marked by

a helical fluid channel (6) with a relative to the rotor axis (10) coaxial duct stub (7), in particular as a fluid inlet, and a tangential duct stub (8), in particular as a fluid outlet.

3. pump unit (1) according to claim 1 or 2,

characterized,

in that within the pump housing (2) a sealing plane (11) substantially orthogonal to the rotor axis (10) is provided for the sealing of the electric motor. sector (12) and for the sealing of the printed circuit board (13) opposite the fluid channel (6) is formed.

4. pump unit (1) according to claim 3,

characterized,

a first circumferential seal (14) of the electric motor (12) and a second circumferential seal (15) of the printed circuit board (13) are formed in the sealing plane (11).

5. pump unit (1) according to one of claims 1 to 3,

characterized,

the pump housing (2) has a half-shell-shaped housing lower part (2a) and a cover-like housing upper part (2b) connected thereto, in particular screwed.

6. pump unit (1) according to claim 5,

characterized,

the first housing chamber (4) and the second housing chamber (5) are formed in the lower housing part (2a) and the fluid channel (6) is formed in the upper housing part (2b).

7. Pump unit (1) according to one of claims 1 to 6,

characterized,

in that in the pump housing (2), in particular in the upper housing part (2b), a, advantageously blechartiges, cooling element (18) is integrated, which is connected on the one hand to the circuit board (13) and on the other hand to the fluid channel (6) thermally.

8. pump unit (1) according to claim 7,

characterized,

the cooling element (18) is in direct contact with the printed circuit board (3).

9. pump unit (1) according to claim 7 or 8, characterized,

in that the cooling element (18) is thermally connected to the fluid channel (6) for the purpose of indirect contact with the conveyed fluid.

10. pump unit (1) according to one of claims 7 to 9,

characterized,

the cooling element (18) is integrated at least partially, in particular in the region of the thermal connection to the fluid channel (6), into the housing upper part (2b).

11. Pump unit (1) according to one of claims 7 to 10,

characterized,

the cooling element (12) is at least partially surrounded by the material, in particular plastic material, of the pump housing (2), in particular of the housing upper part (2b), or encapsulated by it.

12. pump unit (1) according to one of claims 7 to 11,

characterized,

the cooling element (18) has a cylindrical section (18b) for thermal connection to the fluid channel (6) and a plate-shaped section (18a) for thermal connection to the printed circuit board (12).

13. Pump unit (1) according to one of claims 1 to 12,

characterized,

the impeller (9) is connected in one piece or in one piece with the rotor (12a).

14. Pump unit (1) according to one of claims 1 to 13,

characterized,

the rotor (12a) is provided with an encapsulation (24), in particular a plastic encapsulation.

15. pump unit (1) according to claim 14,

characterized,

in that the impeller (9) is at least partially formed by the encapsulation (24) of the rotor (12a).