Abb Schweiz Ag

Wei Xing

Ghanshyam Shrestha

Rajib Mikail

Graham Medlin

The present disclosure relates to electrical machines, such as liquid-cooled motors. The liquid-cooled motors can include a stator with cooling tube channels (e.g., corrugated channels) having tubes inserted and expanded. Lamination holes for each lamination in the lamination stack of the stator can have varying diameter along the axial direction to achieve a corrugated internal feature. The tubes for cooling liquid can be fitted in the lamination holes of the stator. In some embodiments, hydraulic expansion expands and plastically deforms the tubes to the contour of the corrugated internal feature of the corrugated channel. In some embodiments, the tube can also be inserted in the corrugated channel and a stator head plate, thereby helping create a compact stator by removing the need for tube connections to connect the corrugated channels.

Liquid cooled motors using hydraulic expansion tubes with corrugated contact

A stator assembly for a rotating electrical machine is operatively associated with an internal cooling circuit including a plurality of cooling channels disposed through a stator core. To directed a liquid coolant medium through the stator core without leakage, the internal cooling circuit is formed from a plurality of cooling tubes including linear tubes and elbow tubes. Linear tubes are disposed in the cooling channels and can be expanded with a hydraulic expansion tool to frictionally fit the linear tube therein. The elbow tubes can fluidly couple two or more linear tubes and are disposed proximately beyond the first and second axial end faces of the stator core. To encapsulate the elbow tubes, first and second stator end castings of thermally conductive, electrically isolating material can be cast adjacent the first and second axial end faces.

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Raleigh, NC, United States of America

Wei Xing