Stepping motor

• US 6,670,731 B2
• Filed: 03/25/2002
• Issued: 12/30/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/23/2001
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: TDK Corporation
• Original Assignee: TDK Corporation
• Inventors: Mishima, Kazunori, Kotani, Tsutomu
• Primary Examiner(s): MULLINS, BURTON S
• Application Number:
  US10/103,728
• Publication Number:
  US 20020135243A1
• Time in Patent Office: 645 Days
• Field of Search: 310/49.R, 310/254, 310/40.MM, 310/156.01, 310/83
• US Class Current: 310/49.24
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 1/141 consisting of C-shaped cores
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 1/143 of the horse-shoe type
• CPC Class Codes: H02K 37/16 having horseshoe armature cores

Abstract

A stepping motor including a rotor having a plurality of magnetic poles, one stator base arranged near the rotor, a pair of magnetic yokes fixed on the stator base and arranged to face the magnetic poles of the rotor, a pair of excitation coils for exciting the pair of magnetic yokes respectively in response to drive pulses which have phase difference, and a pair of stator magnetic polar portions integrally formed with the stator base. The stepping motor is constructed to form magnetic paths together with the number of magnetic turns of the excitation coils without increasing the size of the magnetic yokes, thereby enhancing operations and reliability.

Claims

1. A stepping motor comprising:

a rotor having a plurality of magnetic poles along its circumferential direction;

one stator base arranged near the rotor;

a pair of magnetic yokes fixed on the stator base and arranged to face the magnetic poles of the rotor;

a pair of excitation coils mounted on the pair of magnetic yokes respectively and exciting the pair of magnetic yokes respectively in response to drive pulses which have phase difference; and

a pair of stator magnetic polar portions integrally formed with the stator base, for forming magnetic paths together with the magnetic yokes respectively,

wherein,

when an angle between the pair of magnetic yokes around a center of the rotor is α

, angles between the pair of magnetic yokes and the stator magnetic polar portions are β

1 and β

2 respectively, and an angle between the pair of stator magnetic polar portions is γ

,

and if a number of magnetic poles of the rotor is N, K is an integer, a is an odd number, and b is 0 or 1,

each of the angle α and

angles β

1 and β

2 is less than 180° and

obtained from formulas of

2. The stepping motor according to claim 1,

wherein the number N of magnetic poles of the rotor is in a range of 6 to 20.

3. The stepping motor according to claim 1,

wherein a center portion of the rotor is formed of resin material and formed integrally with a gear, and an outer circumferential side of the rotor is formed by a permanent magnet.

4. The stepping motor according to claim 1,

wherein the stator base is formed of ferromagnetic material.

5. The stepping motor according to claim 1,

wherein each of the pair of magnetic yokes is formed in a linear shape, base end sides of the magnetic yokes are fixed on the stator base, and front end sides of the magnetic yokes are arranged to face the rotor.

6. The stepping motor according to claim 1,

wherein front end sides of the pair of magnetic yokes are formed in a J-shape, and the front end sides are arranged to face the rotor.

7. The stepping motor according to claim 1,

wherein the pair of stator magnetic polar portions are formed in a manner in which portions protruding from the stator base are respectively bent with respect to a surface of the stator base.

8. The stepping motor according to claim 1,

wherein permeability of material composing the pair of magnetic yokes is higher than permeability of material composing the stator base.