ELECTRIC DRIVE UNIT HAVING A COOLING SLEEVE

Abstract

An electric drive unit with an electric machine arranged in a motor housing. The electric machine has a rotor and a stator. A transmission is arranged in a transmission housing and driven by the electric machine. A cooling sleeve is provided, which forms a radially outward facing hollow space for a coolant by virtue of a spiral-shaped circumferential web between itself and the surrounding motor housing. Furthermore the cooling sleeve has a holding web which is designed to be clamped between two motor housing components.

Claims

1-11. (canceled)

12. An electric drive unit (2, 82, 86) comprising an electric machine (4, 70) arranged in a motor housing (18, 22, 58, 64, 76, 92, 94), the electric machine having a rotor (14) and a stator (30, 72), a transmission (8) being arranged in a transmission housing (54, 66) and driven by the electric machine (4, 70), a cooling sleeve (36, 60, 74, 96) forming a hollow space (52, 98) for a coolant between the cooling sleeve and the surrounding motor housing (18, 22, 58, 64, 76, 92, 94) by virtue of a spiral-shaped circumferential web (38, 100) extending radially outward is provided, the cooling sleeve has a holding web (40, 62, 88, 102) that is designed to be clamped between first and second motor housing components (18, 22, 58, 64, 76, 92 94).

13. The electric drive unit (86) according to claim 12, wherein the electric drive unit (86) has a third motor housing component (76), comprising a first flange (78) and a second flange (80) arranged at an opposite end, the third motor housing component (76) is fixed by one of the first and the second flanges (78) to the first or the second motor housing component (18) and by the other one of the first and the second flanges (80) to the respective other the first or the second motor housing component (22) and to the holding web (88) of the cooling sleeve (74).

14. The electric drive unit (2, 86) according to claim 12, wherein the holding web (40, 88, 102) is arranged in a central area of the cooling sleeve (36, 74).

15. The electric drive unit (2, 82, 86) according to claim 12, wherein the holding web (40) has an opening (48), which enables an exchange of coolant in the hollow space (52, 98) between areas of a radially outer surface of the cooling sleeve (36) provided axially on both sides of the holding web (40).

16. The electric drive unit (2, 82, 86) according to claim 13, wherein the first and the second motor housing components (18, 22, 76, 92, 94) and the holding web (40, 88, 102) of the cooling sleeve (36, 74, 96) are connected in a screwed joint.

17. The electric drive unit (82) according to claim 13, wherein a common fixing of the first and the second motor housing components (58, 64), the holding web (62) of the cooling sleeve (60), and the transmission housing (66), is provided by a screwed joint (68).

18. The electric drive unit (82) according to claim 12, wherein the spiral-shaped circumferential web (38) is arranged on a radially outer side of the cooling sleeve (36).

19. The electric drive unit (82) according to claim 12, wherein the spiral-shaped web (100) is arranged on a radially inner side of the first and the second motor housing components (92, 94).

20. A cooling sleeve (36, 60, 74) for an electric drive unit (2, 82, 86), which surrounds a stator (30, 72) of an electric machine (4, 70) in such manner that heat from the stator (4, 70) is transferrable to the cooling sleeve (36, 60, 74), a radially outer surface of the cooling sleeve (36, 60, 74) has a spiral-shaped web (38) that surrounds the cooling sleeve (36, 60, 74), the spiral-shaped web together with a motor housing (18, 22, 58, 76) of the electric drive unit that surrounds the cooling sleeve (36, 60, 74), forms a hollow space (52) into which cooling liquid can be introduced, and the cooling sleeve (36, 60, 74) has a holding web (40, 62, 88) by means of which the cooling sleeve (36, 60, 74) is attached to the motor housing (18, 22, 58, 64, 76).

21. The cooling sleeve (36, 74) according to claim 20, wherein the holding web (40, 88) is arranged in an axially central area of the cooling sleeve (36, 74).

22. The cooling sleeve (36) according to claim 20, wherein the holding web (40) has an opening (48) which enables an exchange of coolant between areas of the radially outer surface of the cooling sleeve (36) provided axially on both sides of the holding web (40).

23. An electric drive unit comprising: an electric machine having a rotor and a stator and being arranged in a motor housing, the motor housing comprising at least first and second housing components; a transmission being driven by the electric machine and arranged in a transmission housing; and a cooling sleeve being connected to a radially outer surface of the stator such that a hollow space is formed radially between the motor housing and an outer surface of the cooling sleeve, the outer surface of the cooling sleeve having a spiral-shaped circumferential web extending radially outward therefrom, the spiral-shaped circumferential web facilitating a flow of coolant within the hollow space circumferentially around and axially along the cooling sleeve between the cooling sleeve and the motor housing, the cooling sleeve having a holding web that extends radially from the outer surface thereof and is clamped between the first and the second housing components.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0017] The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to a drawing, which shows:

[0018] FIG. 1: A schematic representation of an electric drive unit

[0019] FIG. 2: A cooling sleeve

[0020] FIG. 3: A different arrangement of the cooling sleeve

[0021] FIG. 4: An arrangement with a different stator

[0022] FIG. 5: An alternative arrangement according to FIG. 1

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0023] FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of an electric drive unit 2, which consists of an electric machine 4 as the motor and a planetary gearset 6 as a transmission 8 connected downstream from the electric machine 4. In this case the sun gear 10 of the planetary gearset 6 is connected to the rotor shaft 12 of the electric machine 4. The rotor shaft 12 carries the rotor 14 and is on one side fitted into a bearing 16 in the first motor housing component 18. On the other side the rotor shaft 12 is fitted into the bearing 20 in the second motor housing component 22. In the planetary gearset 6 shown, the planetary gearwheels 24 are also arranged on the planetary carrier 26, which also forms the drive output shaft 28 of the electric drive unit 2 or is connected thereto.

[0024] Inside the electric machine 4, the rotor 14 rotates relative to the stator 30 about the rotation axis 32. At the axial ends of the stator 30 can be seen the winding heads 34 of the windings passing through the stator 30. Radially on the outside the stator 30 is surrounded by a cooling sleeve 36, whose axial extension is substantially the same as that of the stator 30. With its radially inner surface the cooling sleeve 36 is connected fixed to the radially outer surface of the stator 30, so that a more effective heat transfer between the stator 30 and the cooling sleeve can be achieved. On the radially outer surface of the cooling sleeve 36, a web 38 is provided which extends in a spiral circumferentially around the cooling sleeve 36. In the axially central area of the cooling sleeve a holding web 40 is provided, which has a larger radial extension than the web 38. Together with a flange 42 on the first motor housing component 18 and a flange 44 on the second motor housing component 22, the holding web 40 forms a screwed joint 46 which holds the motor housing components 18 and 22 and the cooling sleeve 36 together in a sealing manner. The screwed joint 46 also ensures that the cooling sleeve 36 is positioned securely in the motor housing.

[0025] Between the radially outer surface of the cooling sleeve 36 with its web 38 and the inside surface of the motor housing components 18 and 22, a hollow space 52 is formed into which cooling liquid for cooling the electric machine 4 is introduced. In the hollow space 52 the cooling liquid flows freely over the whole of the stator 30. The web 38 rests and forms a seal against the inside surface of the motor components 18 and 22, so that no cooling liquid can leak over the web 38 and the flushing of the entire stator 30 with cooling liquid is ensured. The transmission 8 connected downstream has a transmission housing 54, which completely surrounds the planetary gearset 6. The transmission housing 54 is attached by way of the second screwed joint to the second motor housing component 22.

[0026] FIG. 2 shows a more exact representation of the cooling sleeve 36. The spiral-shaped circumferential web 38 can be seen on the radially outer surface, which web extends as far as an opening 48 of the holding web 40 arranged axially in the middle of the cooling sleeve 36. The holding web 40 separates the radially outer surface into two areas. The opening 48 enables the cooling liquid to pass from one area to the other area. Distributed around the circumference of the holding web 40 there are openings 50 through which screws (not shown here) can be inserted to form the screwed joint 46.

[0027] FIG. 3 shows a further design of an electric drive unit 82, which compared with the arrangement in Hg. 1 has different housing components. In FIG. 3 a first motor housing component 58 covers the whole axial length of the stator 30. The cooling sleeve 60 used in this case has a holding web 62 at one of its axial ends. A second motor housing component 64 closes off the area of the electric machine 4. The planetary gearset 6 in the downstream transmission 8 is enclosed by a transmission housing 66. The transmission housing 66, the first motor housing component 58, the second housing component 64 and the holding web 62 are connected to one another by a single screwed joint. In this way the assembly process of the electric drive unit 82 can be simplified, because only the screws provided at the circumference of a single screwed joint 68 now have to be fitted.

[0028] A further design of an electric drive unit 86 is shown in FIG. 4, in which an axially longer electric machine 70 is used in the same first motor housing component 18 as in Fig. Accordingly the stator 72 of the longer electric machine 70 needs an axially longer cooling sleeve 74, which together with the stator 72 projects farther out of the first motor housing component 18. In order to be able also to use the same motor housing component 22 as in FIG. 1, and thus to be able to produce a plurality of variants of an electric drive unit using the same motor housing components 18 and 22, the axial distance forming a gap between the motor housing components must be bridged. For this a third motor housing component 76 is inserted between the first motor housing component 18 and the second motor housing component 22, and this too encloses the cooling sleeve 74. At its two axial ends the third motor housing component 76 has respective flanges 78 and 80. With the flange 42 on the first motor housing component 18, the flange 78 forms a first screwed joint 84. With the flange 44 on the second motor housing component 22 and a holding web 88 on the cooling sleeve 74, the second flange 80 forms a second screwed joint 90. As in FIG. 1 the transmission housing 54 is connected to the second motor housing component 22 by another screwed joint 56.

[0029] If with an axially longer rotor the motor housing components 58 and 64 and also the transmission housing 66 are used in an arrangement according to FIG. 3, then an axial length adaptation can also take place in accordance with FIG. 4, whereby in turn a screwed joint can be saved.

[0030] FIG. 5 shows an alternative arrangement to the representation in FIG. 1. In FIG. 5 the hollow space 98 is formed between the motor housing components 92 and 94 on the one hand and the cooling sleeve 96 on the other hand, in the same way as in FIG. 1. In this case, however, the radially surrounding web 100 is not arranged radially on the outside of the cooling sleeve 96, but rather, radially on the inside in the motor housing components 92 and 94, being for example produced by milling. In the same way as in the arrangement according to FIG. 1, here too the web 100 is in contact with and forms a seal against the cooling sleeve 96, so that coolant present in the hollow space 98 cannot leak out over the web 100 and the cooling function of the cooling spiral is ensured. Analogously with FIG. 1 on the cooling sleeve 96 a holding web 102 is provided which can be connected with the two motor housing components 92 and 94 by the screwed joint 104. Adaptations of the housing components to designs that correspond to FIGS. 3 and 4 can be done in the same way.

INDEXES

[0031] 2 Electric drive unit [0032] 4 Electric machine [0033] 6 Planetary gearset [0034] 8 Transmission [0035] 10 Sun gear [0036] 12 Rotor shaft [0037] 14 Rotor [0038] 16 Bearing [0039] 18 Motor housing component [0040] 20 Bearing [0041] 22 Motor housing component [0042] 24 Planetary gearwheel [0043] 26 Planetary carrier [0044] 28 Drive output shaft [0045] 30 Stator [0046] 32 Rotation axis [0047] 34 Winding head [0048] 36 Cooling sleeve [0049] 38 Web [0050] 40 Holding web [0051] 42 Flange [0052] 44 Flange [0053] 46 Screwed joint [0054] 49 Opening [0055] 50 Opening [0056] 52 Hollow space [0057] 54 Transmission housing [0058] 56 Screwed joint [0059] 58 Motor housing component [0060] 60 Cooling sleeve [0061] 62 Holding web [0062] 64 Motor housing component [0063] 66 Transmission housing [0064] 68 Screwed joint [0065] 70 Electric machine [0066] 72 Stator [0067] 74 Cooling sleeve [0068] 76 Motor housing component [0069] 78 Flange [0070] 80 Flange [0071] 82 Electric drive unit [0072] 84 Screwed joint [0073] 86 Electric drive unit [0074] 88 Holding web [0075] 90 Screwed joint [0076] 92 Motor housing component [0077] 94 Motor housing component [0078] 96 Cooling sleeve [0079] 98 Hollow space [0080] 100 Web [0081] 102 Holding web [0082] 104 Screwed joint