1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a color wheel driving device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A single-plate type projector unit using Digital Light Processing (DLP) includes a color wheel having a plurality of color filters, each of which passes a different color light beam, and includes a color-wheel driving device that rotates the color wheel. In this projector unit, the light beam is irradiated from a light source to the color wheel, and a light beam in a suitable frequency band is obtained one after another by rotating the color wheel and is projected onto a micro mirror device. The micro mirror device reflects the light beam to guide it onto a screen. As a result, an image is projected onto the screen. In a conventional color-wheel driving device, the center of gravity of the driving device is arranged axially upward from a bearing assembly of the motor of the driving device.
In the color wheel device, a motor of the driving device is arranged in a transverse manner such that the color film of the color wheel receives the light irradiated from the light source. In the configuration mentioned above, a rotation axis of the motor is perpendicular to a direction of gravity, so that the shaft is biased in the direction of gravity and so that a force in the direction of gravity is applied to the bearing assembly. When the center of gravity is arranged axially upward from the bearing assembly, the overhang load is applied to the bearing assembly. As a result, an excessive load is applied to the bearing assembly, and the bearing life is shortened.
Furthermore, in the conventional driving device, the bearing assembly can be damaged further because of vibration or run-out caused when the rotation of the motor is not stabilized.
In general, it is possible to arrange more color filters having different colors in the color wheel by expanding an outer diameter of the color wheel. By using the color wheel mentioned above, it is possible to provide a high-resolution image while the rotational speed of the color wheel remains low. Therefore, it is possible to provide high resolution images while the rotational speed of the motor stays low. However, expanding the outer diameter of the color wheel makes the rotation of the motor unstable. On the one hand, the outer diameter of the color wheel can be reduced in order to stabilize the rotation of the motor. On the other hand, the outer diameter of the color wheel can be expanded if the rotation of the motor is stabilized. Additionally, by stabilizing the rotation, the motor can be rotated at lower speeds while providing a high-quality image. Moreover, it will prolong the bearing life of the motor.
In order to overcome the problems described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention provide a motor which stably rotates.
According to preferred embodiments of the present invention, a color wheel driving device includes a stationary portion, a color wheel on which a plurality of color filters of different colors are arranged in a circumferential direction, a rotor hub to which the color wheel is fixed, a bearing assembly being arranged between the rotor hub and the stationary portion and rotatably supporting the rotor hub, a rotor magnet fixed to the rotor hub, and a stator being fixed to the stationary portion and having a magnetic pole facing the rotor magnet. The bearing assembly includes a pair of bearing portions arranged in an axially direction, and a center of gravity of a rotor assembly, which includes members rotatably supported by the bearing assembly, is axially arranged between the pair of bearing portions.
With this configuration described above, vibration and run-out caused by uneven weight distribution of the rotor assembly can be controlled. Therefore, excessive load is not applied to the bearing assembly, and bearing life is prolonged.
It should be understood that in the explanation of the present invention, when positional relationships among and orientations of the different components are described as being up/down or left/right, ultimately positional relationships and orientations that are in the drawings are indicated; positional relationships among and orientations of the components once having been assembled into an actual device are not indicated.
Other features, elements, characteristics and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the attached drawings.
Projector Unit
The projector unit 1 preferably includes a color wheel assembly 3, a light source 4, a digital micro mirror device (DMD) 5, and an optical projection assembly 7. The color wheel assembly 3 includes a motor and a color wheel 2 that is attached to a rotor of the motor. The color wheel 2 includes a bore into which a cylindrical portion of the rotor is inserted. The light source 4 irradiates the light to the color wheel 2, and DMD 5 reflects the light passing through the color wheel 2 to guide the light to the optical projection assembly 7 and to project the image on the screen 6.
For example, the color wheel 2 can include three different filters, one of which passes the light in a red band in a spectrum (R), one of which passes the light in a green band (G), and one of which passes the light in a blue band (B). The color wheel 2 can be circumferentially dividend into three areas by 120 degrees, and each of the R, G, and B filters are arranged in one of the three areas. The color filters of the color wheel could be arranged in other manners. The color wheel 2 is rotated by the motor at high-speed (e.g., 10,000 RPM). DMD 5 includes a plurality of micro reflecting mirrors, each of which is attitude-controllable and is arranged in a two dimensional manner. Each one of R, G, and B lights passing through the color wheel 2 is guided to each micro reflecting mirror of DMD 5 through a condenser lens 8 and is reflected into the optical projection assembly 7 or in another direction. As a result, the light incoming to the optical projection assembly 7 is projected onto the screen 6. Depending on an input signal from an external source, the attitude of the DMD 5 is changed synchronously with a rotation angle of the color wheel 2 at high speed. With the configuration mentioned above, images (composed of an R image, a G image, and a B image) projected onto the screen 6 can be changed at high speed, such that a color movie can be projected onto the screen 6.
Configuration of the Motor
Referring to
As shown in
A sleeve 60 made of porous material (such as porous sintered material) impregnated with lubricant oil is fixed to an inner circumferential surface of the housing 10 along the through hole. The sleeve 60 is axially positioned to abut against the circular washer 40. With the configuration mentioned above, the felt 20 is accommodated in the circular concave portion 11 provided on the housing 10.
An upper bearing portion 62 and a bottom bearing portion 63 are provided at an axially upper position and an axially bottom position of the inner circumferential side of the sleeve 60, respectively. At the upper 62 and bottom 63 bearing portions, inner diameters thereof are smaller than those other portions of the sleeve 60.
A shaft 70 is inserted into the sleeve 60 and is rotatably supported by upper 62 and bottom 63 bearing portions. A circular convex portion 71 is provided at a bottom portion of the shaft 70, and is engaged with the circular washer 40 such that the shaft 70 is securely retained.
A rotor hub 80 having a substantially cylindrical shape is fixed to an upper portion of the shaft 70. The rotor hub 80 includes an outer cylindrical portion 81 and an outwardly extending portion 82 extending in a radially outward direction. The color wheel 2 (not shown in
The housing 10 has a three-tiered shape, and the outer diameter of the housing expands along the axial direction in three steps. In other words, the housing 10 includes three different portions whose diameters are different, and an upper portion of the housing 10, a first cylindrical portion 12, has a smaller diameter than other two portions and is arranged so as to face an inner circumferential surface of the outer cylindrical portion 81 of the rotor hub 80 with a gap maintained therebetween. A middle portion of the housing, a second cylindrical portion 13, has a diameter greater than that of the first cylindrical portion 12 but smaller than a bottom portion of the housing, a third cylindrical portion 14.
A stator 110 having an annular shape is fixed to the second cylindrical portion 13. The stator 110 is axially aligned by abutting against an upper surface of the third cylindrical portion 14. The housing 10, the sleeve 60, and the stator 110 constitute a stationary portion 900.
A substantially annular magnet 120 is fixed within an annular convex portion 15 that is indented axially downwardly from an upper end surface of the housing 10. Moreover, an annular groove 85 is indented axially upwardly from a surface of the rotor hub 80, with the surface of the annular groove 85 axially facing the annular magnet 120. Within the annular groove 85, an annular yoke 130 made of a magnetic material is fixed. The annular magnet 120 and the annular yoke 130 attract each other and generate a magnetic bias. Therefore, the rotor hub 80 is downwardly attracted and is securely retained.
Amounting plate 140 is fixed to a bottom surface of the third cylindrical portion 14 of the housing 10. The mounting plate 140 is attached to the predetermined portion of the projector unit 1 (shown in
Electric current from an external power source is provided to the stator 110 through the connector 160, and a magnetic field is generated around the stator 110. The magnetic field interacts with the rotor magnet 100, and the motor is rotary driven.
Principal Portion
1) Center of gravity
As shown in
According to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, the center of gravity of the rotor assembly 200 is preferably arranged axially between the upper bearing portion 62 and the bottom bearing portion 63. If the center of gravity is arranged axially upward from the upper bearing portion 62, overhand load and momentum are applied to the upper bearing portion 62. Therefore, an excessive load is applied to the upper bearing 62. As a result, the lubricant oil leaks from the gap between the shaft 70 and the upper bearing portion 62, and the bearing life is shortened. In the worst case, the shaft 70 and an inner circumferential surface of the sleeve 60 come to contact each other, and the upper bearing portion 62 is scraped by the shaft 70. As a result, sludge can be generated between the shaft 70 and the inner circumferential surface of the sleeve 60, and the motor can be locked by the sludge. According to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, however, the overhang load is not generated because the center of gravity of the rotor assembly is arranged axially downward from the upper bearing portion 62. Furthermore, because the center of gravity is arranged axially between the upper bearing portion 62 and the bottom bearing 63, the occurrence of the momentum can be prevented. As mentioned above, the excessive load is not applied to the upper bearing portion 62 so that the bearing life is prolonged.
It is preferable that the center of gravity of the rotor assembly 200 is arranged at a position axially upward from the placing surface 83 of the rotor hub 80 and axially downward from the upper surface of the color wheel 2.
More preferably, the center of gravity of the rotor assembly 200 is arranged at an axially middle position between the upper bearing portion 62 and the bottom bearing portion 63. With the configuration mentioned above, an equal load is applied to each of the upper 62 and bottom 63 bearing portions. Thus, the shaft 70 is not inclined. As a result, it is possible to control the run out and the vibration so that the rotation of the motor is stabilized.
2-1) Preferred Embodiment Having Two-Plane Balancing
Referring to FIGS. 4 to 6, weight balancing of the rotor assembly 200 will be explained. In
As shown in
Moreover, in this preferred embodiment of the present invention, the axial distance between the upper end surface 171 of the clamper 170 and the upper end surface of the rotor hub 80 is more than substantially half of that between the bottom end surface of the yoke 90 and the upper end surface of the rotor hub 80. With this configuration, the portions to which minus balancing are performed are distanced in the axial direction so that the effect of two-plane balancing is improved. In two-plane balancing, the greater the axial distance between the portions to which balancing is applied is, the more efficient the balancing will be. With a small axial distance, the effect of two-plane balancing can be diminished to the equivalent level of single-plane balancing. In this preferred embodiment of the present invention, however, the axial distance between the planes to which balancing is applied is large so that it is possible to effectively perform balancing.
As shown in
Moreover, in this preferred embodiment of the present invention, the balance weight 2c can be fixed to the bottom surface of the color wheel 2. With this configuration, it is possible to adjust the weight balance of the rotor assembly 200 by loading balance weight to axially upward and downward positions from the center of gravity. With this configuration mentioned above, any vibration that is caused by the displacement of the center of gravity and that greatly affects the motor performance can be controlled because the run out of the center of the gravity can be adjusted by attaching the weight balance to both of axially upper and bottom surfaces.
As shown in
2-2) Another Preferred Embodiment of Two-Plane Balancing
Referring to
Hereinafter, a rotor hub and a clamper having the shapes shown in
Referring to
At a middle portion of an upper surface of the rotor hub 210, a first annular convex portion 211 is provided. A second annular convex portion 221 is provided at a radially outward portion of the upper surface of the clamper 220. With this configuration described above, the weight balance of the rotor assembly can be adjusted by fixing the balance weight 230 at an inner peripheral portion 211a of the first annular convex portion 211 and a corner portion 221a of the upper surface of the clamper 220 and an inner circumferential surface of the second annular convex portion 221. Moreover, with walls formed on the rotor hub 210 and the clamper 220 in a manner in which the walls extends in a circumferential direction, it is possible to prevent the balance weight 230 from spinning off. As explained above, a highly reliable motor can be provided by applying plus balancing.
As shown in
The balance weight according to this preferred embodiment of the present invention can be any suitable substance as long as it can be fixed to the rotor assembly. The balance weight can be adhesives, resin, metal blocks, or any other suitable material.
While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in the foregoing, the present invention is not limited to the preferred embodiments detailed above, in that various modifications are possible.
In the preferred embodiments of the present invention, sinter material impregnated with the lubricant oil is preferably used as the bearing. However, the bearing can be any suitable member as long as it can suitably support the rotor assembly. For example, the bearing can be a ball bearing or an air dynamic bearing.
It should be understood that the foregoing description is only illustrative of the present invention. Various alternatives and modifications can be devised by those skilled in the art without departing from the present invention. Accordingly, the present invention is intended to embrace all such alternatives, modifications, and variances that fall within the scope of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2005-215436 | Jul 2005 | JP | national |