US-12624508-B2 - Electric snowblower

US12624508B2US 12624508 B2US12624508 B2US 12624508B2US-12624508-B2

Abstract

Disclosed is a two-stage electric powered snowblower. It has an auger, a blower, and a main drive shaft. A first electric motor is operably coupled to the drive shaft to rotate the drive shaft at a desired speed. The drive shaft is operably coupled to the auger to rotate the auger. The auger rotates to pull snow into the snowblower housing so that it can be forced out of a chute in the desired direction. A second electric motor is operably coupled to the blower to drive the blower at a desired speed which is typically higher than the speed of the auger. The second electric motor is mounted adjacent the first electric motor. The blower is operably coupled to the second electric motor. The drive shaft extends through the second electric motor the blower.

Inventors

Michael Allen Bonney

Assignees

Michael Allen Bonney

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20210930

Claims (20)

1 . A snowblower comprising: an auger, a blower, a drive shaft, a first electric motor operably coupled to said drive shaft to rotate said drive shaft at a desired speed, said drive shaft operably coupled to said auger to rotate said auger; a second electric motor operably coupled to said blower to drive said blower at a desired speed; and a hub, said hub operatively connected to said second electric motor and said drive shaft being journaled within said hub such that said blower is free to rotate with respect to said drive shaft.
2 . The snowblower of claim 1 , further including a pair of drive wheels and an electric motor drive to drive said wheels.
3 . The snowblower of claim 2 , wherein said electric motor drive includes at least a third electric motor and gearbox, said third electric motor and gearbox is operatively connected to at least one wheel to drive said snowblower.
4 . The snowblower of claim 3 , wherein said electric motor drive includes a fourth electric motor and gearbox, said third electric motor and gearbox is operatively connected to one wheel of said snowblower and said fourth electric motor and gearbox is operatively connected to said other wheel of said snowblower.
5 . The snowblower of claim 1 , wherein said first electric motor is attached to said second electric motor.
6 . The snowblower of claim 1 , wherein said second electric motor has a hollow shaft to which said blower is mounted and a bore extending through said second electric motor and colinear with said hollow shaft, said drive shaft extending through said bore and said hollow shaft, wherein said drive shaft is free to rotate within said bore and said hollow shaft.
7 . The snowblower of claim 1 , wherein said second electric motor has a bore extending through said second electric motor, said drive shaft extending through said bore.
8 . The snowblower of claim 1 , wherein said first and second electric motors operate independent of one another.
9 . The snowblower of claim 1 , wherein said first electric motor has a lower wattage and lower revolutions per minute than said second electric motor.
10 . The snowblower of claim 1 , wherein said first electric motor is operatively connected to a helical right-angle gearbox.
11 . A snowblower comprising: an auger, a blower, a drive shaft, a first electric motor operably coupled to said drive shaft to rotate said drive shaft at a desired speed, said drive shaft operably coupled to said auger to rotate said auger; a second electric motor operably coupled to said blower to drive said blower at a desired speed; said drive shaft extending through said second electric motor and said blower.
12 . The snowblower of claim 11 , further including a pair of drive wheels and an electric motor drive to drive said wheels.
13 . The snowblower of claim 11 , wherein said electric motor drive includes at a third electric motor and gearbox, and a fourth electric motor and gearbox, said third electric motor and gearbox is operatively connected to one wheel of said snowblower and said fourth electric motor and gearbox is operatively connected to said other wheel of said snowblower.
14 . The snowblower of claim 11 , wherein said first electric motor is attached to said second electric motor.
15 . The snowblower of claim 11 , wherein said second electric motor has a hollow shaft to which said blower is mounted and a bore extending through said second electric motor colinear with said hollow shaft, said drive shaft extending through said bore and said hollow shaft, wherein said drive shaft is free to rotate within said bore and said hollow shaft.
16 . The snowblower of claim 11 , wherein said second electric motor has a bore extending through said second electric motor, said drive shaft extending through said bore.
17 . The snowblower of claim 11 , further including a hub, said hub operatively connected to said second electric motor and said drive shaft being journaled within said hub such that said blower is free to rotate with respect to said drive shaft.
18 . The snowblower of claim 11 , wherein said first and second electric motors operate independent of one another.
19 . The snowblower of claim 11 , wherein said first electric motor has a lower wattage and lower revolutions per minute than said second electric motor.
20 . The snowblower of claim 11 , wherein said first electric motor is operatively connected to a helical right-angle gearbox.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 63/085,869 filed on Sep. 30, 2020. STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH NONE. TECHNICAL FIELD This invention relates generally to snowblowers and more particularly to two stage snowblowers. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Gas powered snow blowers are very common. They typically are either single stage or dual stage. Single stage gas snow blowers have an auger directly coupled to the gas motor. The auger rotates to force snow up through a discharge chute. Dual stage gas snow blowers have a blower adjacent to the discharge chute and an auger. The auger pulls snow into the snow blower and adjacent the chute. The blower then forces the snow out of the chute. With both the single and dual stage snow blowers, you manually adjust the chute to determine the direction and extent of snow thrown from the chute. Typically, this the user rotates the shoot in the direction where snow is being thrown and adjusts the top of the chute to make the exit opening larger or narrower to control the snow being thrown. As can be appreciated, this can lead to problems of clogging depending upon the size of the opening and the snow and ice conditions. In the dual stage unit, the gas engine drives both the blower and the auger. This creates the need for complicated gearboxes to provide a high-speed drive to the blower and a lower speed drive to the auger. Additionally, if the auger is slowed down, stopped, or clogged due to heavy snow or ice, the blower is also slowed down or stopped since they are commonly driven by the same drive shaft. This makes the clearing of the snowblower more difficult. With the recent trend towards replacing gas-powered motors with electric motors, there is a need for an electric powered snowblower. Canadian patent application 3110144 A1 is an attempt to provide an electric powered snowblower. Basically, the snowblower disclosed in the '144 application replaces a gas motor with an electric motor. But the '144 suffers from the same problems as gas powered snow blowers, a single engine driving the auger and the blower. What is needed is an electric powered snowblower that avoids the problems of driving an auger and a blower with a single motor, is compact and provides high value at a competitive cost. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In general terms, this invention provides a two-stage electric powered snowblower. It has an auger, a blower, and a main drive shaft. A first electric motor is operably coupled to the drive shaft to rotate the drive shaft at a desired speed. The drive shaft is operably coupled to the auger to rotate the auger. The auger rotates to pull snow into the snowblower housing so that it can be forced out of a chute in the desired direction. A second electric motor is operably coupled to the blower to drive the blower at a desired speed which is typically higher than the speed of the auger. The second electric motor is mounted in line with the first electric motor. The blower is operably coupled to the second electric motor. The first motor shaft or drive shaft extends through the second electric motor and the blower. The snow blower includes a pair of drive wheels and an electric motor drive to drive them. The electric motor drive includes at least a third electric motor and gearbox, with the third electric motor and gearbox operatively connected to at least one wheel to drive the snowblower. In the disclosed embodiment, there is a fourth electric motor and gearbox, the third electric motor and gearbox drives one wheel of said snowblower and the fourth electric motor and gearbox drives the other wheel of the snowblower. To utilize two electric motors, one for the auger and the other for the blower, the blower motor and auger motors are positioned closely together. In one embodiment they are attached. In this embodiment, the blower motor has a hollow shaft to which the blower is mounted. The blower motor also has a bore extending through it. The bore is colinear with the hollow shaft, so that the drive shaft can extend through them and is free to rotate within the bore and the hollow shaft. In a further embodiment, the blower motor has a hub that is connected to the drive shaft and is journaled within the hub so that the blower is free to rotate with respect to the drive shaft. These and other features and advantages of this invention will become more apparent to those skilled in the art from the detailed description of a preferred embodiment. The drawings that accompany the detailed description are described below. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the snow blower of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a cutaway view of the snow blower of the present invention. FIG. 3 is an exploded view of the snow blower of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the auger motor. FIG. 5 is a cutaway view of a second embodiment of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIP