Stator pole teeth for a claw pole stepping motor

A stator structure enables a claw pole motor to be reduced in diameter and to highly increase its performance. In a stator structure of the claw pole stepping motor comprising a stator that constitutes magnetic circuits in yokes 2 and 3 made by sheet metal working of a soft magnetic steel plate and a rotor that is disposed inside the stator for rotation; pole teeth 4 made of soft magnetic material are provided as separate parts independent of the yokes 2 and 3, and held at the inner circumference of a bobbin 5 made of polymeric material, thereby allowing easy manufacturing of a long stator or a stator with a small diameter for which the pole teeth 4 have difficulty, otherwise, in being well organized, at the same time allowing the area of cross section of the pole teeth 4 to be arbitrarily determined so as not to cause magnetic saturation, allowing to provide a high output power, allowing to determine the pole teeth 4 in the bobbin 5 so as not to disorder the arrangement of the pole teeth 4 which are responsible for the step angle accuracy, and thus allowing to accomplish high accuracy in step angle accuracy.

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What is claimed is:

1. A claw pole stepping motor, comprising:

a stator forming a magnetic circuit, the stator including:

an inner yoke;

an outer yoke, the inner and outer yokes having a soft magnetic steel plate;

a bobbin including a polymeric material and arranged between the inner yoke and the outer yoke with a coil being wound around the bobbin;

guide slots formed on an inner surface of the bobbin; and

positioning guide portions and stoppers formed on respective first ends of each of the guide slots;

a rotor disposed inside the stator for rotation; and

a plurality of pole teeth, which are discrete and separate from both of the yokes and held at an inner circumference of the bobbin by the guide slots, the stoppers being resilient and causing respective lengths of the guide slots to belongitudinally shorter than lengths of the respective pole teeth for creating a stable contact between the pole teeth and both of the yokes.

2. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein a thickness T1 of each of the pole teeth is related to a plate thickness T2 of both of the yoke as T1.gtoreq.T2.

3. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein a length L of the pole tooth in an axial direction and a diameter D of the rotor are related as L.gtoreq.D/2.

4. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein:

the guide slots position and hold respective ones of the pole teeth around the inner circumference of the bobbins; and

the guide portions position and hold the yokes and the pole teeth on end faces of the bobbin.

5. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 3, wherein the positioning guide portions secure the pole teeth to the bobbin.

6. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein the pole teeth are formed as a unitary structure with the bobbin using insert molding.

7. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein the pole teeth are pressed into the inner and outer yokes.

8. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein an outer diameter of the claw pole stepping motor is less than about 8 mm.

9. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein the pole teeth have a triangular shape.

10. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein the pole teeth have a rectangular shape.

11. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 10, wherein tips of the pole teeth have respective slots.

12. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein the pole teeth have a trapezoidal shape.

13. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein the pole teeth have a warped shape.

14. The claw pole stepping motor according to claim 1, wherein the pole teeth have a stepped shape.

15. A method of manufacturing a claw pole stepping motor, comprising:

forming a stator, including:

forming an inner yoke from a material including a soft, magnetic steel;

forming an outer yoke from the material including the soft, magnetic steel;

arranging a bobbin between the inner yoke and the outer yoke, a coil being wrapped around the bobbin;

forming guide slots on an inner surface of the bobbin; and

forming positioning guide portions and stoppers on respective first ends of each of the guide slots;

disposing a rotor within the stator for rotation; and

securing a plurality of pole teeth, which are discrete and separate from both of the yokes, to an inner surface of the bobbin via the guide slots, the stoppers being resilient and causing respective lengths of the guide slots to be longitudinallyshorter than lengths of the respective pole teeth for creating a stable contact between the pole teeth and both of the yokes.

16. The method of manufacturing a claw pole stepping motor according to claim 15, further including:

forming the pole teeth such that a thickness T1 of each of the pole teeth is related to a thickness T2 of respective plates of both of the yokes as T1.gtoreq.T2.