A marine propulsion unit includes a duct including a stator, a propeller including a rim including a rotor disposed at a position that faces the stator and a blade provided radially inward of the rim, a steering shaft that supports the duct such that the duct is steerable, a casing provided separately from the steering shaft and that extends along a rotation axis of the propeller, and a motor controller disposed in the casing and configured or programmed to control rotational driving of the propeller.

A marine propulsion unit including a rotary casing rotatable about a central axis A, and blades extending axially from the rotary casing for rotation with the rotary casing about the central axis A, wherein each blade is mounted for pivotal movement about blade axes B. A blade shaft portion of each blade is at least partly surrounded by a blade housing and by a blade portion of each blade is outside the blade housing, wherein the blade housing is releasable attached to the rotary casing, and each blade being supported in the blade housing by means of bearings for the pivotal movement.

A propulsion system for a vessel includes an engine propulsion unit that provides a propulsive force to a hull by using an engine as a power source, an electric propulsion unit that provides a propulsive force to the hull by using an electric motor as a power source, a storing mechanism that is displaced from an actuating position to actuate the electric propulsion unit to a storing position to store the electric propulsion unit and performs a storing operation to store the electric propulsion unit, and an interlock controller that interlocks a storing operation of the storing mechanism with generation of a propulsive force by the engine propulsion unit.

A vessel propulsion apparatus includes a cylindrical duct including a stator and a propeller. The propeller includes a rim including a rotor disposed at a position facing the stator and defining an electric motor in combination with the stator, and blades on an inner side in a radial direction of the rim. A fluid bearing is provided on the duct and defines a gap into which surrounding water is introduced between the fluid bearing and the rim, and is water-lubricated with respect to the rim due to water introduced into the gap from the surroundings. The vessel propulsion apparatus further includes a motor controller that drives the electric motor by rotation speed control in a rotation speed control region in which an output command is not more than a predetermined value, and drives the electric motor by torque control in a torque control region in which an output command is more than the predetermined value.

The invention relates to a swimming and diving aid with a vehicle hull on which a user lies or stands, with a flow channel which is arranged in the vehicle hull and which accommodates a propeller driven by an electric motor with radially outwardly directed propeller blades mounted on a base part of the propeller, wherein the electric motor has a rigidly arranged motor stator and a rotating rotor, which is spatially assigned to the motor stator. Provision is made that the rotor of the electric motor is coupled directly or indirectly to at least one outer end of at least one propeller blade, and that the motor stator is arranged circumferentially around the rotor at least in sections. The motor arrangement permits a dynamic drive of the swimming and diving aid.

A tangential flow machine can be operated both as electric propulsion and as a generator, having a jacket housing which can have flow passing around it on an outer side, the profile of which is formed on a first front-side opening, and tapers to a second front side, on which a second front-side opening is formed. Between the two front-side openings, there extends a flow path along a main axis, and with an electrical machine, which on the jacket housing has a stator and a rotor that is supported so as to rotate within the stator. The rotor defines a free rotary axis and has a rotor ring and an arrangement of rotor blades which each extend from the rotor ring, radially to a free edge and the free edges of the rotor blades, in the projection direction parallel to the main axis, delimit a free circular surface. With this, provision is made that the rotor blades are formed by baffle plates, which extend in the direction of the main axis over the entire axial length of the rotor ring.

A propulsion unit is disclosed, which can include a casing, a shaft, a propeller, an annular housing and a rim drive electric motor. The casing can be rotatably supported at a hull of a vessel. The shaft can be rotatably supported with bearings within a lower portion of the casing. A propeller can be attached to an outer end of the shaft protruding from the lower portion of the casing. The annular housing can surround an outer perimeter of the propeller and can form a duct for water flowing through the interior of the annular housing. The rim drive electric motor can include a rotor rim provided on an outer perimeter of the propeller and a stator provided within the annular housing. Oil lubricated roller bearings can be used on the shaft within the casing. The axial length of the propulsion unit can be short.

Propulsion unit (11) for propulsion and maneuvering of a maritime vessel, which includes a nozzle (12) wherein a propeller section (13, 13a) is arranged, which propeller section (13, 13a) is electrically or hydraulically driven, which propulsion unit (11) includes a fastening device (16) arranged for arrangement to hull of the vessel or to a steering device arranged for steering and/or moving the propulsion unit (11). The fastening device (16) is formed by two stems (17a-b) extending in parallel or laterally reversed about an vertical central axis from an upper surface of the nozzle (12) of the propulsion unit, which stems (17a-b) end in a fixing flange (18) for thereby providing an opening (19) which provides the propulsion unit (11) with improved hydrodynamic performance.

A propulsion system for a vehicle includes a supporting structure and a plurality of propellers carried by the supporting structure. Each propeller is associated to an electric motor with a toroid geometry, having an annular rotor rotatable within an annular stator and defining therewithin a central aperture. The blades of the propeller, which are carried by the rotor, extend to the central aperture.

The present invention relates to a rim driven propeller unit for a vessel, where a number of permanent magnets (4) are arranged round the propeller unit's rotatable rotor housing (1), comprising a number of propeller blades (3), and a number of permanent magnets round the propeller unit's external, stationary casing (2) housing the rotatable rotor housing, where the permanent magnets round parts of the rotatable rotor housing and the external, stationary casing's circumference are provided located above one another with like polarity, while other parts of the rotatable rotor housing and the external, stationary casing are provided located facing one another with opposite polarity, whereby the rotor housing and the stationary casing are repelled by and attracted to one another respectively, thereby being prevented from coming into contact with one another.