Vehicle input shafts are disclosed. The vehicle input shafts include a bearing boss, a spline portion, a cylindrical shaft body portion and a drive end. The spline portion includes spline teeth and spline grooves that do not exit directly onto the shaft body. Instead, the spline grooves include blend out fillets that interrupt the spline grooves by providing additional material near the shaft body. The bearing boss includes an increased diameter at a central point along its axial length and decreased diameters at its first and second boss ends.

An improved flywheel system for storing energy and providing the stored energy includes a rotor on a centrally located shaft. The shaft is positioned through support bearings. A magnetic off-loader provides a magnetic force to move the shaft axially in regard to the bearings. A feedback control system, provided to reduce bearing loads on the bearing, comprises a sensor mounted in a bearing housing positioned to measure the distance of a gap between a top end of the shaft and a lower surface of the sensor. In response to changes in the distance the sensor sends an electrical signal to a controller which in turn provides variable electric current to the magnetic off-loader which then provides a magnetic lifting force to the rotor on the shaft to minimize bearing load.

An apparatus for supporting a flywheel on a floating vessel includes a support for the flywheel; and a tilt sensor for measuring an angle of slope relative to the Earth, the tilt sensor being arranged to detect a change of an angle of slope of the floating vessel relative to the Earth. The apparatus further includes a driver for manoeuvring the support relative to the floating vessel, based on the measured angle of slope from the tilt sensor, wherein the driver is operable to manoeuvre the support so as to counteract a change of an angle of slope of the flywheel relative to the Earth due to the detected change of an angle of slope of the floating vessel.

A flywheel kinetic accumulator provides an accumulator assembly, in which a flywheel that is mounted on roll bearings rotates about a rotation axis; the flywheel is axially supported by two sets of magnetic elements (16, 16) facing each other, arranged in two parallel planes, along two circular paths having the same diameter; one set is connected to the accumulator assembly, and the other to the flywheel; the magnetic elements (16, 16) of the two sets are arranged in rotation, such that when a magnetic element (16) of the one set is aligned with a respective magnetic element (16) of the other set along an axis that is parallel to the rotation axis, all other magnetic elements (16, 16) are offset with respect to one another in order to reduce/eliminate the magnetic forces acting in the direction opposite to the rotation direction (V).

The present invention relates to a flywheel apparatus for energy storage and recovery including a housing within which there is a chamber in which a flywheel on a shaft rotates. The chamber is evacuated to at or near vacuum pressure, so that air resistance-related energy losses of the flywheel as it rotates are reduced. Maintaining near-vacuum pressure within the chamber requires an effective seal between the housing and the shaft. The effective seal must be maintained despite any relative movement (in particular translational movement) of the flywheel and the housing. To this end, the shaft is mounted via a bearing arrangement on a carrier on which is also mounted a sealing arrangement. The carrier is mounted on the housing such that the carrier, the bearing arrangement and the sealing arrangement move substantially together relative to the housing.

Vehicle input shafts are disclosed. The vehicle input shafts include a bearing boss, a spline portion, a cylindrical shaft body portion and a drive end. The spline portion includes spline teeth and spline grooves that do not exit directly onto the shaft body. Instead, the spline grooves include blend out fillets that interrupt the spline grooves by providing additional material near the shaft body. The bearing boss includes an increased diameter at a central point along its axial length and decreased diameters at its first and second boss ends.

An apparatus comprising: a flywheel; a shaft; a bearing arrangement for supporting the shaft; a sealing arrangement; and a housing for housing the flywheel, the shaft, the bearing arrangement and the sealing arrangement, wherein the flywheel is mounted on the shaft, the sealing arrangement is mounted between the shaft and the housing, and the bearing arrangement is mounted both to the shaft, between the flywheel and the sealing arrangement, and to the housing; and wherein the sealing arrangement comprises a pair of seals that are configured to extend circumferentially around the shaft, the seals being arranged to form a hermetic seal against the shaft to hermetically seal the housing.

A gyroscopic roll stabilizer comprises a gimbal having a support frame and enclosure configured to maintain a below-ambient pressure, a flywheel assembly including a flywheel and flywheel shaft, one or more bearings for rotatably mounting the flywheel inside the enclosure, a motor for rotating the flywheel, and bearing cooling system for cooling the bearings supporting the flywheel. For smaller units, the bearing cooling system is effective to enable a flywheel with a moment of inertia less than 40,000 lb in.sup.2 to be accelerated at a rate of 5 rpm/s or greater. For larger units, the bearing cooling system is effective to enable a flywheel with a moment of inertia greater than 40,000 lb in.sup.2 to be accelerated at a rate of 2.5 rpm/s or greater.

A stabilization system for a rotating load, such as a flywheel, includes a mechanical bearing to continuously support a shaft of the rotating load so as to hold the shaft at a substantially fixed axis of rotation. A magnetic stabilization assembly includes a plurality of electromagnets arranged around the shaft. Control circuitry for controls a resultant magnetic field generated by the electromagnets such that the magnetic field acts on a ferromagnetic element of the shaft to reduce imbalance forces acting on the shaft.

A method of electro-dynamically matching a bearing assembly includes electrically separating inner and outer races from rolling elements of the bearing assembly with lubricant and rotating the inner race relative to the outer race. A voltage differential is applied across the inner and the outer races and via isolated rolling elements and the race eroded an electrical discharge event across a gap defined between the one or more of the races and rolling elements. Electro-dynamically matched bearing assemblies and reaction/momentum flywheel arrangements for artificial satellites are also described.