WO2024125616A1

WO2024125616A1 - Turbowheel

Info

Publication number: WO2024125616A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/138965
Authority: WO
Inventors: Nikola Tomislav V NIKOLICH
Original assignee: Tethr Limited
Priority date: 2022-12-14
Filing date: 2023-12-14
Publication date: 2024-06-20

Abstract

An electric motor powered wheel, including a motor mounting assembly, motors arranged around the motor mounting assembly, opposing wheel spoke disk, a drive gear and a static axle; wherein the drive gear is fixed to the static axle and the motors are arranged to engage with the drive gear and rotate the motor mounting assembly and wheel spoke disk around the static axle.

Description

TURBOWHEEL

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an electric motor driven wheel.

BACKGROUND

Each document, reference, patent application or patent cited in this text is expressly incorporated herein in their entirety by reference, which means that it should be read and considered by the reader as part of this text. That the document, reference, patent application, or patent cited in this text is not repeated in this text is merely for reasons of conciseness.

Existing electric bikes typically use body frame mounted batteries and motors. The motor typically drives a main gear and chain system to drive the rear wheel as is done for a standard pedal bicycle. Existing throttle driven electric bikes also have body frame mounted batteries and motors that drive the wheels via a chain, drive shaft or other remote mechanism.

Other wheel mounted battery and motor systems exist, but these either drive the wheel from central axis with one motor or are unbalanced and prone to gyroscopic procession at speed.

A need exists for a high powered electric motor driven wheel exists that is balanced and stable.

SUMMARY

It is an object of this invention to provide to ameliorate, mitigate or overcome, at least one disadvantage of the prior art, or which will at least provide the public with a practical choice.

In a first embodiment, the present invention provides a self-driven wheel including

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

Further features of the present invention are more fully described in the following description of several non-limiting embodiments thereof. This description is included solely for the purposes of exemplifying the present invention. It should not be understood as a restriction on the broad summary, disclosure or description of the invention as set out above. The description will be made with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of an electric motor driven wheel in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the electric motor driven wheel of FIG. 1 in use.

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional perspective view of the electric motor driven wheel of FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional perspective view of the electric motor driven wheel of FIG. 1.

FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective view of an electric motor driven wheel in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an exploded perspective view of the electric motor driven wheel of FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is an exploded perspective view of a motor array and support rim for the electric motor driven wheel of FIG. 5.

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of a motor array and support rim for the electric motor driven wheel of FIG. 5.

FIG. 9 is a partially exploded view of the motor array of FIG. 7.

FIG. 10 is an exploded perspective view of a motor array and support rim for the electric motor driven wheel of FIG. 5.

In the drawings like structures are referred to by like numerals throughout the several views. The drawings shown are not necessarily to scale, with emphasis instead generally being placed upon illustrating the principles of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

Referring to figures 1 to 4, the invention according to the first embodiment is in the form of an electric motor driven wheel 11 wherein the drive means and battery are housed and balanced within the electric motor driven wheel 11. When fitted to a standard bicycle, the electric motor driven wheel 11 provides drive to the bicycle without external power or drive connections.

The electric motor driven wheel 11 includes opposed wheel spoke disks 17 arranged to connect motor mounting brackets 2, each associated with one of the opposed wheel spoke disks, and tyre 15 to provide torque to the tyre 15. The opposed wheel spoke disks 17 include recesses 29 angularly evenly spaced around the diameter of the opposed wheel spoke disks 17. Recesses 29 are sized and shaped to receive and house batteries 19 within them. Batteries 19 supply power to motors 3, equi-spaced around the unit circle of the motor mounting bracket 2. The motor mounting bracket 2 includes motor recesses 13, angularly evenly spaced around the unit circle of the motor mounting bracket 2. The motor recesses 13 are arranged to receive and house motors 3 within them. Motor recesses 13 are adjacent to recesses 29 to align a battery 19 with an adjacent motor 3 to provide power to the battery. In one, non-limiting embodiment power is transferred from the battery 19 to motor 3 at terminal 33.

The motor mounting brackets 2 includes an aperture around its central axis arranged to receive an output shaft 9.

The motor mounting brackets 2 include a gear recessed central region arranged to receive a bevel gear 6.

In one no limiting embodiment, the motors are DC brushless motors In one, non-limiting embodiment, the motors are each 150W to 300W motors.

In one embodiment, there are four recesses 29, four batteries 19, four motor recesses 13 and four motors 3. In an alternative embodiment, there are six recesses 29, six batteries 19, six motor recesses 13 and six motors 3. In an alternative embodiment, there are eight recesses 29, eight batteries 19, eight motor recesses 13 and eight motors 3. In an alternative embodiment, there are five recesses 29, five batteries 19, five motor recesses 13 and five motors 3. The end of the motors 3 distal the battery 19 in use includes a straight bevelled pinion 1 arranged to engage the bevel gear 6 and rotate when the motor 3 is operated.

To form the wheel 11, a motor mounting bracket 2 is fixed to a corresponding side wheel spoke disk 17. Fixing means 30 is passed and fixed through apertures 31 and 32 to connect a common side motor mounting bracket 2 and wheel spoke disk 17 together. With the bracket 2 and disk 17 joined together batteries 19 are placed in recesses 29 and motors 3 are placed in the motor recesses 19. The batteries 19 are connected to an adjacent motor 3 to provide power to the motor 3.

The bevel gear 6 is arranged to sit within a gear recess 40 in the motor mounting bracket 2. Output shafts 9 are fixedly attached to the bevel gear 6 on either side using fixing means through apertures 46 and 48. The output shafts 9 extend through the apertures in the motor mounting bracket 2 and are arranged to be fixed to the forks of a bike. The bevel gear 6 is engaged with pinions 1 in use. In one embodiment, the end of the output shaft 9 distal the bevel gear 6 is shaped to engage a fork of the bike and minimise rotation of the output shaft.

In one embodiment, the bevel gear 6 and the pinions 1 include straight teeth. In an alternative embodiment, the bevel gear 6 and the pinions 1 include helical teel. In yet an alternative embodiment, the bevel gear 6 and the pinions 1 include herringbone teeth.

The bevel gear 6 is enclosed on either side by both joined together opposite motor mounting brackets and opposing wheel spoke disks 17 using fixing means 42 through apertures 44.

The outer edges of the opposing wheel spoke disks 17 are arranged like bicycle rims and receive a tyre 15. It is within the scope of the present invention for the tyre to include a tube.

Controllers 20 are located between the batteries 19 and are used for distributed control of the operation of the motors 3.

In use, a signal is sent to batteries 19 to simultaneously operate motors 3 and rotate pinion 1. Rotation of the pinion 1 and the location of the motors 3 within the motor recesses 13 applies torque to the wheel around the fixed in place bevel gear 6 and results in motion to the wheel when.

A second embodiment of an electrical motor driven wheel 51 invention for a bicycle is illustrated in figures 5 to 10. For convenience features of the second embodiment that are similar or correspond to features of the electrical motor driven wheel of the first embodiment have been referenced with the same reference numerals.

The second embodiment provides a static base electric motor driven wheel 111 wherein one side of the wheel comprised static rim 150 that is static in use, not rotating, and the opposing side of the wheel comprises rotating spoke 127, that rotates to drive movement of the wheel.

The static base electric motor driven wheel 111 includes a DC motor array 102, a battery stack chassis 130, a drive gear 106, to transfer torque from the DC motor array 102 to the static base electric motor driven wheel 111, a rotating spoke 127, a rotating rim 117, a static axle 109 and a static rim 150.

The static axle 109 is fixed to a bicycle forks in use so that the static axle 109 does not rotate. The static axle 109 passes through central apertures in the rotating spoke 127, the gear drive 106 and the DC motor array 102. A axle plate 110 at an end of the static axle 109 is arranged to abut a face of the DC motor array 102 and fix the DC motor array 102. Apertures in the axle plate 110 align with apertures in the DC motor array to allow fixing means (such as bolts and nuts) to pass through the apertures and fix the DC motor array 102 to the static axle 109. This ensures that the DC motor array 102 remains static while the wheel is powered.

The DC motor array 102 includes fixation projections 122 arranged to fix the DC motor array 102 to the battery stack chassis 130. The fixation projection 122 are arranged to be received in motor array receiving recesses 123. The fixation projection 122 is fixed to the motor array receiving recesses 123, and the batteries are arranged to power the DC motor array 102, causing the battery stack chassis to be static and not rotate as the electric motor driven wheel 111 does as described below. The static rim 150 is fixed to the battery stack chassis 130 at multiple corresponding fixation points around the perimeter of the battery stack chassis 130 and the static rim 150. As the static rim 150 is fixed to the battery stack chassis 130, it is fixed in place also and does not rotate when the electric motor driven wheel 111 does.

The rotating rim 117 includes an internal opening arranged to receive the DC motor array 102 within it. The rotating rim 117 includes a lower base 118 around the internal opening and a raised extension 125 that extends away from the lower base 118 in a direction with a perpendicular component. The lower base 118 of the rotating rim 117 is arranged to abut a rotating lower base 128 of the rotating spoke 127. The outer edge of the rotating spoke 127 includes a rim 129 that extends away from the lower base 118 away from the rotating rim 117. The resulting space between the raised extension 125 and rim 129 allows a tyre to be fitted between them in the same manner as with standard bicycle tyres. Pressure between the battery stack chassis 130, the rotating rim 117 and the rotating spoke 127 provides friction braking.

The DC motor array 102 houses a number of DC motors 103 and a drive gear 106 that provide torque to the static base electric motor driven wheel 111. The drive gear 106 has an exposed face 108 on the outer face of the DC motor array 102 opposite the battery stack arrangement 130. The end of DC motors 103 includes pinions 101 that engage with mating pinions on the drive gear 106 and rotates the drive gear 106. The exposed face 108 includes a key projection 107 that extends outwards from the drive gear 106. The Key projection 107 is arranged to extend through lock aperture 104 in the rotating spoke 127. The profile of the lock aperture 104 corresponds to the profile of the key projection 107 resulting in rotation of the rotating spoke 127, rotating rim 117 and electric motor driven wheel 111. The DC motor array 102, the battery stack chassis 130 and the static rim 150 all remain static while rotating spoke 127, rotating rim 117 and the tyre 115 rotate to move the electric motor driven wheel 111.

In one embodiment, the drive gear 106 is a spline drive. The skilled addressee will recognise that alternative drive mechanisms may be used and fit within the scope of the present invention.

A washer 113 abuts the outer surface of rotating spoke 127 and locks it in place. Washer 113 is fixed to static axle 109.

Although the present invention has been discussed with respect to wheels of bicycles, the wheel of the present invention is not limited to is not limited to the use of bicycle wheels. The wheel of the present invention can be used in wheel chairs, scooters, wheelbarrows, rickshaws, LEVs, quad bikes, tricycles and other low mass wheeled vehicles.

Modifications and variations such as would be apparent to the skilled addressee are considered to fall within the scope of the present invention. The present invention is not to be limited in scope by any of the specific embodiments described herein. These embodiments are intended for the purpose of exemplification only. Functionally equivalent products, formulations and methods are clearly within the scope of the invention as described herein.

Reference to positional descriptions, such as lower and upper, are to be taken in context of the embodiments depicted in the figures, and are not to be taken as limiting the invention to the literal interpretation of the term but rather as would be understood by the skilled addressee.

Throughout this specification, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise" or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising" , will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated integer or group of integers but not the exclusion of any other integer or group of integers.

Also, future patent applications maybe filed in Australia or overseas on the basis of, or claiming priority from, the present application. It is to be understood that the following provisional claims are provided by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of what may be claimed in any such future application. Features may be added to or omitted from the provisional claims at a later date so as to further define or re-define the invention or inventions.

Claims

An electric motor powered wheel, comprising a motor mounting assembly, motors arranged around the motor mounting assembly, opposing wheel spoke disk, a drive gear and a static axle; wherein the drive gear is fixed to the static axle and the motors are arranged to engage with the drive gear and rotate the motor mounting assembly and wheel spoke disk around the static axle.
The electric motor powered wheel of claim 1, wherein the motors are evenly angularly spaced around the motor mounting assembly.
The electric motor powered wheel of claims 1 or 2, wherein there are at least 4 motors.
The electric motor powered wheel of any one of clams 2 to 3, comprising a battery associated with each motor.
The electric motor powered wheel assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the drive gear is housed within the motor mounting assembly.
The electric motor powered wheel as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the motor mounting assembly comprises two opposing motor mounting brackets.
The electric motor powered wheel as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the wheel is a bicycle wheel.
An electric motor powered wheel comprising a motor assembly, a drive mechanism, a static rim, a rotating rim, a rotating spoke opposite the static rim and a static axle, wherein the motor assembly is fixed to the static axle and the drive mechanism forms a face of the motor assembly; wherein the drive assembly comprises a key projection engaged with a locking profile in the rotating spoke so that, when the drive mechanism rotates the key projection causes the rotating spoke and rotating rim to rotate.
The electric motor powered wheel of claim 8, wherein the static rim engages the motor assembly.