1.

An exhaust-gas turbocharger of said type is known from US 7,287,960 B2. The rotor of said known exhaust-gas turbocharger is formed by a turbine wheel which has a connecting peg on its wheel rear side. The connecting peg is inserted into a cavity of a shaft shoulder of the shaft of the exhaust-gas turbocharger and is soldered.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an exhaust-gas turbocharger of the type specified in the preamble of claim 1, the turbine wheel of which can be connected to the shaft in a simple and secure manner.

Said object is achieved by means of the features of claim 1.

According to the invention, a screw connection is provided for the connection of the shaft and turbine wheel. The screw connection comprises firstly an external thread which is arranged on the wheel rear side of the turbine wheel. For this purpose, it is possible for the wheel rear side to be provided with a threaded peg on which the external thread is formed. The connecting device also comprises a sleeve nut which, for the assembly of the shaft and turbine wheel, is pushed over the shaft and screwed onto the external thread of the turbine wheel. During the course of the screwing-on process, the sleeve nut abuts against a shaft shoulder of the shaft and braces the shaft against the turbine wheel.

The subclaims relate to advantageous refinements of the invention.

It is preferably possible for the sleeve nut to be centered on the shaft and/or on the turbine wheel as it is screwed on.

Furthermore, the shaft and the turbine wheel may be aligned relative to one another by means of a further centering device.

For the transmission of force between the turbine wheel and the shaft, it is furthermore possible to provide, in addition to the stated bracing action, a positively locking connection between the shaft and the turbine wheel, for example in the region of a lateral surface of the threaded peg of the turbine wheel and/or of a lateral surface of a centering projection of the shaft, which centering projection can be inserted into a centering recess of the turbine wheel.

Alternatively, to secure the braced components (turbine wheel and shaft), it is possible to produce a positively locking/cohesive connection between the sleeve nut and the turbine wheel or between the sleeve nut and the shaft. Here, after the screwing-on process, at least one, preferably two bores may be drilled through the sleeve nut and the shaft. Pins can subsequently be inserted into and secured in said bores.

A further possibility for a supplementary positively locking connection consists in at least one, preferably two bores being formed through the sleeve nut and into the turbine wheel after the components have been screwed together. Pins may again be inserted into and secured in said bores.

An example of an additional cohesive connection is the provision of radial and/or axial bores in the sleeve nut. Said bores may be welded to the shaft after the bracing of the components.

Claims 8 and 9 define a rotor according to the invention of an exhaust gas turbocharger as an object that can be dealt with independently.

Further details, advantages and features of the present invention will emerge from the following description of an exemplary embodiment on the basis of the drawing, in which:

figure 1 is a schematically highly simplified diagrammatic illustration of an exhaust-gas turbocharger according to the invention, and

figure 2 is a schematically slightly simplified illustration of the joining region between the shaft and the turbine wheel of the exhaust-gas turbocharger, as per claim 1.

Figure 1 illustrates, in a schematically highly simplified diagrammatic illustration, an exhaust-gas turbocharger 1 according to the invention. The exhaust-gas turbocharger 1 has a shaft 2 which is mounted in a bearing housing 12. On one end of the shaft 2 there is mounted a turbine wheel 5 of a turbine 4. At the opposite end, a compressor wheel 10 of a compressor 11 is fixed to the shaft 2.

Figure 2 illustrates the joining or connecting region between the shaft 2 and the turbine wheel 5 on an enlarged scale. Here, figure 2 shows that the shaft 2 is provided, adjacent to an end side 3, with a shaft shoulder 4 whose outer diameter A ₄ is larger than the outer diameter A ₂ of the shaft 2.

From the shaft shoulder 4, a centering projection 13 extends to the end side 3, the outer diameter A ₁₃ of which centering projection is smaller than the outer diameter A ₄ . In the assembled state illustrated in figure 2, said centering projection 13 engages into a centering recess 14 which is arranged in a threaded peg 15 which is integrally formed on the wheel rear side 6 of the turbine wheel 5.

Figure 2 also shows a connecting device 8 which, in the particularly preferred embodiment illustrated in figure 2, is formed by a sleeve nut 8A with an internal thread 8B and with a holding region 8C and by an external thread portion 7 on the threaded peg 15 of the turbine wheel 5.

The assembled state illustrated in figure 2 shows that, as a result of the sleeve nut 8A being screwed onto the external thread portion 7, the holding region 8C engages behind the shaft shoulder 4 and thereby braces the shaft 2 and the turbine wheel 5 against one another.

In addition to the centering device explained above in the form of the centering shoulder 13 and the centering recess 14, there may alternatively or additionally be provided a further centering device 16 which comprises mating surfaces on the sleeve nut 8 and on the turbine wheel 5 or on the threaded peg 15, as can be seen in detail from the diagrammatic illustration of figure 2.

In addition to the bracing of the shaft 2 and turbine wheel 5 as described above on the basis of figure 2, it is possible (but not imperative) for the positively locking and/or cohesive connection devices explained in the introduction, which are however not illustrated in figure 2, to also be provided for the transmission of force.

In addition to the above written disclosure of the invention, reference is hereby explicitly made, to supplement the disclosure, to figures 1 and 2.

LIST OF REFERENCE SYMBOLS

1 Exhaust-gas turbocharger

2 Shaft

3 End side

4 Shaft shoulder

5 Turbine wheel

6 Wheel rear side

7 External thread portion

8 Connecting device

8A Sleeve nut

8B Internal thread

8C Holding region

9 Bearing housing

10 Compressor wheel

11 Compressor

12 Rotor

13 Centering projection

14 Centering recess

15 Threaded peg

16 Centering device

L Longitudinal central line of the exhaust-gas turbocharger or rotor

A ₂ Outer diameter of the shaft 2

A ₄ Outer diameter of the shaft shoulder 4

Ai3 Outer diameter of the centering projection 13