Primus Power Corporation

Amber Kinetics, Inc.

Tesla Motors, Inc.

Other

Tesla, Inc.

Peter Thomas Tennessen

Paul Bryan Kreiner

Jonathan Hall

Mark J Holloway

Lauren Wessel Hart

Russell S Cole

Seth Robert Sanders

Daniel Bakholdin

Matthew Kurt Senesky

Weston Arthur Hermann

Rick Winter

Jeffrey Weintraub

Gerardo Jose La O'

Edward Young Chiao

Pallavi Pharkya

Matthew Brandon Garten

Scott Ira Kohn

Bruce P Edwards

Ernest Matthew Villanueva

Roger Nelson Hitchcock

Alex Prilutsky

David Elias Hegeman

Ganesh Ramanarayan Singh

Ryan Larsen

Kyle B Gaiser

Keenan William Rodewald

Satvik Vipin Batavia

Greg Olsen

Darlene W Conolly

Seth R Sanders

Brian Clemens

Eric Sun

Robert David Sumpf, Jr

Mike M He

Hugh Burnett Ross

Jayesh Bharat Gorasia

Paul Kreiner

Alan Michael Sledd

Austen He

Robert D Sumpf

Alisa Peterson

Alissa Peterson

Kurt Sward

Rick Ellison

Matthew K Senesky

The invention is a flywheel rotor that includes a number of adjacent laminations, stacked one on top of another, where each of the laminations has the same shape and is rotationally symmetric around a center axis, and where the shape is substantially circular and includes a plurality of protrusions exterior to the circumference, and each of the laminations includes at least one hole for a fastening bolt to pass through. The invention typically includes an endplate at each end of stack of laminations. One of the two endplates may attach to a stubshaft.

Stacked lamination rotor

The invention is a motor/generator that includes a motor/generator housing that encloses a rotor assembly, which rotates a shaft, and a stator assembly that remains stationary, and where the motor/generator is inside a vacuum chamber, which, during normal operation, is evacuated of gas and operates at a lower air pressure than atomospheric air pressure, and a cylindrical vacuum barrier between the rotor assembly and the stator assembly that together with the motor generator housing partitions the motor/generator into an interior rotor volume and an exterior stator volume, enabling the rotor volume and stator volume to operate at different atmospheric pressures.

Motor/generator with atmospheric stator pressure

The invention is a flywheel rotor that includes a number of adjacent laminations, stacked one on top of another, where each of the laminations has the same shape and is rotationally symmetric around a center axis, and where the shape is substantially circular and includes a plurality of protrusions on the circumference, and each of the laminations includes at least one hole for at fastening bolts to pass through. The invention typically includes an endplate at each end of stack of laminations and one of the two endplates attaches to a stubshaft.

A flywheel device that includes a housing that surrounds a vacuum chamber, a flywheel rotor within the vacuum chamber, which rotates during normal operation of the flywheel, thus agitating residual gasses, an exhaust chamber that receives the exhaust gases from the vacuum chamber, and an annular shaped stationary element, within the vacuum chamber that includes scroll channels where some of the scroll channels have an intake port on an inner diameter of the stationary element and some of the scroll channels have an intake port on an outer diameter of the stationary element, and the scroll channels enable gasses to flow from the vacuum chamber, through the scroll channels, into the exhaust chamber.

Flywheel with bifurcated molecular pump

A flywheel device includes an enclosure, a top plate that fastens to the enclosure, where the top plate includes a first opening, and a cap, where the cap has a top side and a bottom side, which when fastened to the first opening forms a seal between the bottom side and the first opening, the bottom side including an o-ring groove configured to hold an o-ring, a grease channel concentric with the o-ring groove, and an inlet port configured to enable grease to flow into the grease channel.

Grease channel for reducing gas permeation into vacuum chambers

A flywheel apparatus that magnetically unloads a top rotor bearing is described. The apparatus includes a flywheel housing, a rotor with a vertical axis of rotation that includes a magnetic material, a magnet configured to apply a desired upward off-loading force along the vertical axis of rotation, an upper bearing connected to an upper shaft of the rotor, and a bearing housing disposed between the upper bearing and the flywheel housing that substantially prevents downward axial motion of the upper bearing. The magnet includes an electromagnet. A force sensor is used to measure a force on the upper bearing which is provided as input to a controller that updates the current to the electromagnet. The rotor is maintained in a fixed axial position and a spring disposed below a lower bearing absorbs axial dimension growth of the rotor.

Apparatus and method for magnetically unloading a rotor bearing

A flywheel device includes structures allowing the flywheel system to be assembled offsite, transported safely, and installed with relatively few steps. The flywheel includes a rotor and a housing enclosing the rotor, where the housing includes a bottom plate, a top plate and side walls. The bottom plate and the top plate each includes a hole aligned with the center axis of the rotor. The flywheel also includes multiple bearing housings substantially covering the holes of the bottom plate and the top plate that are aligned to the center axis of the rotor. The flywheel also includes posts that physically contact the primary rotational mass of the rotor to prevent motion of the rotor during transport of the flywheel system. Some or all of these posts may be repositioned or removed during installation so that the rotor can spin freely.

Safe assembly and installation of a flywheel

An energy storage pack includes a coolant inlet manifold, a coolant outlet manifold, and a plurality of thermal-exchange tubes extending between the coolant inlet manifold and the coolant outlet manifold to exchange heat between coolant passing through the plurality of thermal-exchange tubes and a plurality of battery cells mounted adjacent to and among the plurality of thermal-exchange tubes within the energy storage pack. In one embodiment, at least one of coolant inlet manifold and the coolant outlet manifold includes a plurality of thermal-exchange tube terminating structures and a plurality of hose segments intercoupling the plurality of thermal-exchange tube terminating structures. The energy storage pack may further include a coolant inlet opening located on the coolant inlet manifold and a coolant outlet opening located on the coolant outlet manifold.

Energy storage pack

A metal-halogen flow battery system includes a stack of flow cells, an electrolyte reservoir and one or more of a concentrated halogen return line fluidly connecting the stack to the reservoir, a venturi, a mixer, a concentrated halogen pump, or a concentrated halogen line heater.

Fluidic architecture for metal-halogen flow battery

A method includes: assembling a thermal-exchange tube in a module housing for an energy storage pack; assembling cells in the module housing, wherein the thermal-exchange tube runs between rows of the cells; applying an adhesive that affixes the cells and the thermal-exchange tube to the module housing; curing a first portion of the adhesive by radiation, wherein a second portion of the adhesive is shielded from the radiation by the cells or the thermal-exchange tube; and curing at least the second portion of the adhesive by a chemical cure mechanism.

Cell module assemblies

A flow battery reservoir includes a reservoir housing, an electrolyte inlet configured to provide an electrolyte mixture containing a liquid metal-halide electrolyte solution and a complexed halogen phase at or toward a stagnant zone in a lower portion of the reservoir, and an electrolyte outlet configured to outlet the liquid metal-halide solution from the reservoir. The electrolyte outlet is positioned such that in use the liquid metal-halide solution flows upward against the force of gravity to reach the electrolyte outlet while the complexed halogen phase settles in the stagnant zone.

Reservoir for multiphase electrolyte flow control

An electrochemical device includes at least one electrochemical cell having an anode electrode and a cathode electrode, a reservoir configured to store an electrolyte and a mass distribution measuring device. The mass distribution measuring device includes at least one of a scale, a first pressure sensor located in a lower portion of the reservoir and a second pressure sensor located in an upper portion of the reservoir, or at least one strain gauge or load cell configured to measure a change a weight of the at least one electrochemical cell.

Mass distribution indication of flow battery state of charge

Growing community of inventors

Oakland, CA, United States of America

Peter Thomas Tennessen