This invention relates to the attachment of a counterweight to a rotating shaft in a way that simplifies the attachment.
Counterweights are often utilized on rotating shafts to balance forces that might be occurring along the shaft as the shaft rotates. As one example, in a scroll compressor, a shaft is driven by an electric motor to drive an orbiting scroll member. The orbiting scroll member is driven to orbit relative to a second scroll member. The counterweight is utilized to balance forces that are created by the orbiting scroll member.
Typically, counterweights have been attached to the shaft by any one of several attachment methods. As an example, the counterweights have been press-fit or shrunk-fit onto the shafts. Further, staking, swaging or other positive attachment methods have been utilized. These methods have required the counterweight to be formed rather precisely, and further have added the additional costs of the individual attachment methods.
It would be desirable to reduce the cost and complexity of attaching the counterweight to the shaft.