The present disclosure relates generally to dynamoelectric machines. More specifically, this disclosure relates to an apparatus for termination of conductors of a stator having six phases and concentrated leads in a vehicle alternator and method of manufacture of the apparatus.
Electric machines, such as alternating current electric generators, or alternators, are well known. Prior art alternators typically include a stator assembly and a rotor assembly disposed in an alternator housing. The stator assembly is mounted to the housing and includes a generally cylindrically shaped stator core having a plurality of slots formed therein. The rotor assembly includes a rotor attached to a generally cylindrical shaft that is rotatably mounted in the housing and is coaxial with the stator assembly. The stator assembly includes a plurality of wires wound thereon, forming six phases. The stator lead wires are typically concentrated in a small area, perhaps even in consecutive slots, and are routed to and connected to a stator terminal assembly.
Stators having six phases typically have stator terminal assemblies which include six electrically conductive tracks. One end of each conductive track is connected to the stator lead wires and another end is connected to a diode pair or similar switching elements of a rectifier bridge. To successfully dissipate diode heat, it is desirable to have the twelve (six pairs of) diodes physically spread out around the alternator circumference. The resultant conductive tracks, therefore, have one end in close proximity to each other (stator lead end) and another end spread out (diode pair end). At the stator lead end, the conductive tracks often interfere with each other and it is a common practice to partially dispose one track on top of another in the axial direction. This is vernacularly called a dual layer track stator terminal assembly. This results in a terminal assembly having a thickness that can in some instances block airflow within the alternator. Such conditions can present rectifier cooling issues. In addition, a dual layer track, if there were a way to reduce that thickness would be viewed as taking up valuable space that could be used, for example, for rectifier cooling fins. Furthermore, the dual layer track stator terminal assembly requires that each track be formed individually and is otherwise difficult and costly to manufacture because of the need to stack the individual tracks. Conversely, when a plurality of conductor tracks are arranged such that the tracks are not partially disposed on top of other tracks in the axial direction, these conductor tracks are considered as being disposed in a single layer.
It is desirable, therefore, to provide a stator terminal assembly of a six phase alternator, with reduced thickness to alleviate properties of the electric machine such as rectifier cooling issues, and also to provide a stator terminal assembly of simplified manufacturability.