CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202111428710.0, filed November 29, 2021, entitled “INTEGRAL BEARING FOR LIDAR MOTOR, LIDAR MOTOR AND LIDAR,” the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the technical field of lidar motors, and in particular to an integrated bearing of a lidar motor, a lidar motor, and a lidar.

BACKGROUND

Since a vehicle-mounted lidar system relates to a plurality of complicated systems, such as an optical system, a circuit system, a mechanical system, and a motor system, moreover the output of the vehicle-mounted lidar system is an optical point cloud, the application of which is very special, the requirements for the accuracy and reliability of the motor are very high. Traditional bearing applications, such as single-row and double-row deep groove ball bearings, are each composed of an outer race, an inner race, a set of steel balls and a set of cages, which cannot well meet their vibration and reliability requirements.

As shown in Fig. 1 , the lidar motor in the prior art uses two single-row deep groove ball bearings 2’ which are axially fitted over a motor shaft 1’. In order to improve accuracy, the inner race of the bearing 2’ needs to be manufactured in one cut, and a bearing washer 3’ is used between the two single-row deep groove ball bearings 2’ as a limit of the bearing. The problem existing in such a structure is the difficulty in assembling.

SUMMARY

In view of the above-mentioned existing technical problems, objectives of the present invention are to provide an integrated bearing of a lidar motor, a lidar motor, and a lidar, which solve the problem of high assembly difficulty caused by the existing vehicle-mounted lidar system using two single -row deep groove ball bearings assembled on a shaft of the motor and adding a washer between the two single-row deep groove ball bearings as a limit. Technical solutions of the present invention are as follows.

One of the objectives of the present invention is to provide an integrated bearing of a lidar motor, the integrated bearing comprising a shaft and a bearing arranged on the shaft, wherein the bearing is one double-row ball bearing and an inner race of the bearing is integrated with the shaft; or the bearing comprises a first bearing and a second bearing, an inner race of the first bearing being integrated with the shaft, and an inner race of the second bearing being slidably assembled on an outer diameter of the shaft and being located over the first bearing.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide a lidar motor, comprising a housing, a rotor assembly, a stator assembly and a bearing arranged within the housing, the bearing being the integrated bearing according to any one as described above.

A still another objective of the present invention is to provide a lidar, comprising the lidar motor as described above.

Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following advantages.

In the integrated bearing of a lidar motor of the present invention, an inner race of one double -row ball bearing is integrated with the shaft, or an inner race of one bearing is integrated with the shaft and the other bearing is slidably assembled on the shaft to form an integrated bearing, so that the problem of high assembly difficulty is solved, which results from the fact that the lidar motor in the prior art uses two single -row deep groove ball bearings respectively assembled on the shaft, and a washer needs to be additionally provided between the two single -row deep groove ball bearings. The use of the integrated bearing can greatly reduce the assembly difficulty while having a higher assembly accuracy and a better reliability. Additionally, by using the integrated bearing in which one bearing is slidably assembled and the inner race of the other bearing is integrated with the shaft, vibration of the motor and the stability of point cloud imaging can also be improved.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the embodiments.

Fig. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional structural diagram of a lidar motor in the prior art (a top housing is omitted);

Fig. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional structural diagram of an integrated bearing of a structure for a lidar motor according to an embodiment of the present invention; Fig. 3 is a schematic cross-sectional structural diagram of an integrated bearing of another structure for a lidar motor according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional structural diagram of the integrated bearing in Fig. 3 when assembled within a lidar motor.

In the figures: 1. Integrated bearing; 11. Shaft; 12. Double-row ball bearing; 120. Ball of double-row ball bearing; 121. First bearing; 1211. Outer race of first bearing; 1212. Ball of first bearing; 122. Second bearing; 1221. Outer race of second bearing; 1222. Ball of second bearing; 2. Bottom housing; 3. Rotor assembly; 31. Rotor yoke; 32.

Optical reflecting mirror; 33. Magnetic ring; 34. Press plate; 4. Stator assembly; and 5.

Wave washer.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

In order to illustrate the objectives, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more clearly, the present invention will be further described in detail below in conjunction with the detailed description of embodiments and with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that these descriptions are exemplary only, rather than limiting the scope of the present invention. Moreover, in the following illustration, the description of the known structures and techniques are omitted to avoid unnecessary confusion of the concept of the present invention.

Embodiments:

Referring to Figs. 2 to 3, an integrated bearing of a lidar motor according to embodiments of the present invention comprises a shaft 11 and a bearing arranged on the shaft 11.

Specifically, in an embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Fig. 2, the integrated bearing uses an integrated bearing 1 having one double-row ball bearing 12 integrated with the shaft 11. The bearing of such a structure has more space, which facilitates the design of oil storage and dust prevention, and the assembly accuracy of the bearing and the shaft is transferred to the assembly accuracy in a bearing factory, so that the assembly difficulty is lower, the accuracy is higher and the reliability is better.

In another embodiment of the present invention, as shown in Fig. 3, the bearing of the integrated bearing 1 comprises a first bearing 121 and a second bearing 122, an inner race of the first bearing 121 is integrated with the shaft 11, and an inner race of the second bearing 122 is slidably assembled on an outer diameter of the shaft 11 and is located over the first bearing 121. The applicant has found through research that, the use of the integrated bearing in the above embodiment with the inner and outer races of the double-row ball bearing being integrated can solve the problem of high assembly difficulty in the prior art caused by the use of two single -row deep groove ball bearings, but there are still some problems, that is, an axial pretension force applied on a wave washer 5 of the bearing fails, so that the clearance of the bearing cannot be adjusted, which affects the vibration of the motor and has a great impact on the optical point cloud imaging. Therefore, the applicant has made improvements to obtain the integrated bearing in the present embodiment. The assembly difficulty is reduced, the assembly accuracy and the reliability are improved, and meanwhile the vibration of the motor is also improved, and the stability of point cloud imaging is improved.

More specifically, as shown in Fig. 3, when the inner race of the first bearing 121 is integrated with the shaft 11, and the inner race of the second bearing 122 is slidably assembled on the shaft 11, an outer race 1211 of the first bearing is integrated with or separated from an outer race 1221 of the second bearing. There is no specific limitation for this. In the present embodiment, the outer race of the first bearing is preferably integrated with the outer race of the second bearing, which can further reduce the assembly difficulty and improve the assembly accuracy and the reliability.

According to some embodiments of the present invention, when the inner race of the first bearing 121 is integrated with the shaft 11, and the inner race of the second bearing 122 is slidably assembled on the shaft 11, there is a gap between the inner race of the second bearing 122 and the outer diameter of the shaft 11 , so as to further reduce the assembly difficulty.

As shown in Fig. 3, when the inner race of the first bearing 121 is integrated with the shaft 11, and the inner race of the second bearing 122 is slidably assembled on the shaft 11, balls 1212 within the first bearing 121 have a diameter larger than that of balls 1222 within the second bearing 122. In such a design, the load of the integrated bearing becomes larger, which is more suitable for the application of a cantilever beam structure.

As shown in Figs. 2 and 3, according to some preferred embodiments of the present invention, when the inner race of the first bearing 121 is integrated with the shaft 11, and the inner race of the second bearing 122 is slidably assembled on the shaft 11, the outer race 1211 of the first bearing 121 has a wall thickness larger than that of the outer race 1221 of the second bearing 122, or larger than, when one double-row ball bearing 12 is used and the inner race of the bearing is integrated with the shaft 11 , that of an outer race of the bearing. The purpose of this design is to reduce the deformation of the outer race when the bearing is assembled.

As shown in Fig. 3, when the inner race of the first bearing 121 is integrated with the shaft 11, and the inner race of the second bearing 122 is slidably assembled on the shaft 11, the shaft 11 is a stepped shaft, and the diameter of the shaft 11 at a location corresponding to the first bearing

121 is larger than that of the shaft 11 at a location corresponding to the second bearing 122.

Optionally, when the inner race of the first bearing 121 is integrated with the shaft 11, and the inner race of the second bearing 122 is slidably assembled on the shaft 11, the second bearing

122 may be an existing common single-row deep groove ball bearing.

Embodiments of the present invention further provides a lidar motor, comprising a housing, a rotor assembly 3, a stator assembly 4, a wave washer 5 and an integrated bearing of the above embodiments. Specifically, as shown in Fig. 4, a lower end of the integrated bearing 1 is pressed against the housing (a top housing is omitted in the figure), specifically against a bottom housing 2, by interference. The rotor assembly 3 comprises a rotor yoke 31, an optical reflecting mirror 32 and a press plate 34. The rotor yoke 31 is provided on an outer side of the integrated bearing 1 , the optical reflecting mirror 32 is fixed on the rotor yoke 31, a magnetic ring 33 is provided within a lower end of the rotor yoke 31 , the lower end of the integrated bearing 1 corresponding to an inner side of the magnetic ring 33 is fixedly arranged on the stator assembly 4, the press plate 34 is pressed against and fixed to the rotor yoke 31 and the optical reflecting mirror 32, and the wave washer 5 is fitted over the shaft 11 , a bottom end of the wave washer abuts against an upper end of the integrated bearing 1, and a top end thereof abuts against a bottom end of the top housing. Since the lidar motor includes the integrated bearing of the above embodiment, it has at least the beneficial effects of the integrated bearing of the above embodiments, and details are not repeated here. That is, the assembly difficulty of the bearing is reduced, the assembly accuracy and the reliability of the bearing are improved, and the design of a dust prevention and oil retaining structure is facilitated.

An embodiment of the present invention further provides a lidar comprising the lidar motor of the above embodiment. Since the lidar includes the lidar motor of the above embodiment, it has at least the beneficial effects of the lidar motor of the above embodiments, and details are not repeated here. That is, the assembly difficulty of the bearing is reduced, the assembly accuracy and the reliability of the bearing are improved, and the design of a dust prevention and oil retaining structure is facilitated.

It should be understood that the detailed description of embodiments of the present invention is merely used for illustration or explanation of the principle of the present invention and is not construed as limiting the present invention. Therefore, any modifications, equivalent substitutions, improvements, etc. made within the spirit and scope of the present invention should be included within the scope of protection of the present invention. In addition, the appended claims of the present invention are intended to cover all the variations and modifications that fall within the scope and boundary of the appended claims thereof or equivalents of the scope and boundary.