Alternator with an interference-reducing capacitor

Claim 1

An alternator-rectifier combination, particularly for automotive vehicles, comprising: an alternator housing, having bearing plates (11, 12); a rotor (15) providing a rotating field; an armature lamination stack (13) mounted within the alternator housing (11, 12) and having at least three three-phase current coils (14); a rectifier assembly, having two cooling plates (27, 28); two pairs of three rectifier diodes (29, 30) connected to rectify the alternator load current, mounted on respective cooling plates and connected, respectively, to the positive and negative sides of the rectifier assembly; an interference reducing capacitor (36); and a connection plate (31) having conductive connection leads or tracks (32, 33, 34) and a positive and negative terminal for the alternator load current, mounted co-axially with the claw-pole rotor on the rotor shaft (15) and attached to the two cooling plates (27, 28), the said rectifier diodes (29, 30) being connected by said conductive leads or tracks to the three-phase armature coils (14) and the positive and negative terminals, respectively; wherein, in accordance with the invention, the connection plate (31) is made of hardened, molded material; two connection tabs (37, 39) are provided, soldered onto each respective side of the interference reducing capacitor (31) and forming therewith a prefabricated unit; and wherein the interference-reducing capacitor (36) together with the connection tabs (27, 39) is, at least in part, molded into the connection plate and being at least partially enclosed by the mold material of the connection plate, the interference-reducing capacitor and the connection tabs forming said prefabricated unit having been inserted, at the time of production of the connection plate, into an injection or pressure mold of the connection plate to at least partially embed the interference reducing capacitor in the mold material of the connection plate upon completion of manufacture of the connection plate (31); and the connection tabs comprising sheet-metal strips (37, 39) having a flat surface bonded to the sides of the capacitor and being formed at a region remote from the capacitor with sleeves (38, 40) having sleeve axes extending transversely to the major plane of the connection plate, to receive electrical connection rivets, each extending through the sleeves and being secured to a respective one of the cooling plates (27, 28).