ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPRISING A MAGNETOCALORIC ELEMENT

Patent application, 2023

An electric motor (1, 30) comprises a stator (2, 31) with windings (6, 6'; 33) for generating a magnetic field, and a drive member (4, 32) comprising a number of magnetic elements (14, 15, 16, 17; 35). The drive member (4, 32) is movable relative to the stator (2, 31) when the stator windings (6, 6'; 33) are electrically energized to generate the magnetic field that interacts with the magnetic elements (14, 15, 16, 17; 35). The drive member (4, 32) comprises at least one magnetocaloric element (20, 21, 22, 23; 36, 37) that provides cooling of the magnetic elements when the magnetocaloric element is situated in the magnetic field, and that has magnetic domain orientations that are reset when the magnetocaloric element (20, 21, 22, 23; 36, 37) is subject to compression forces resulting from a radial or a linear acceleration of the drive member (4,32) when the rotational or linear acceleration of the drive member (4, 32) is above a predetermined threshold.