Clutch
AssigneeKongsberg Automotive ASA
InventorSven Bjorkgard
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A clutch for connecting a flywheel (1) on a drive shaft (2) of an engine with a driven shaft (15) of a gearbox. The flywheel (1) is connected to a clutch cover (7) and between them there is disposed an axially movable pressure plate (8). A clutch disc (9), which is non-rotationally connected to the driven shaft (15), can be clamped between the pressure plate (8) and the flywheel (2) by means of a spring (21) which forces the pressure plate (8) against the flywheel (2). By operating an actuator device (44), the spring's (21) connection with the pressure plate (8) can be broken. According to the invention the clutch comprises a swivel being arranged between the actuator and the driven shaft. The swivel is for transferring a pressure fluid or an electric current to the actuator which may be a hydraulic or an electric actuator.
Claims6
A clutch for use in a transmission line of a vehicle, comprising a first (45) and a second (9,12) main part which extend coaxially in relation to each other and are rotatable about a common longitudinal axis, and which are non-rotationally connected to a drive shaft (2) and a driven shaft (15) respectively, wherein the first main part (45) has a first and a second portion (1 and 7 respectively) which are arranged at a distance apart in the axial direction, and a pressure plate (8) and at least one pressure spring (21) which are mounted between the first (1) and the second portion (7), and the second main part has a clutch disc (9), the pressure plate (8) and the clutch disc (9) being axially movably connected to the drive shaft (2) and the driven shaft (15) respectively, and the pressure spring (21) is mounted between the second portion (7) and the pressure plate (8), attempting to bring the latter into frictional engagement against the clutch disc (9) and simultaneously the clutch disc (9) into frictional engagement against the first portion (1), and the clutch further comprises an actuator device (44) which is arranged for engagement with the pressure spring (21), hereby reducing the spring force exerted by the pressure spring (21) against the pressure plate (8) in order to reduce the frictional engagements, where the actuator device (44) is comprised in the first main part (45) and has an axially movable body (27) which is arranged between the pressure spring (21) and the pressure plate (8), and via which the spring force is transferred to the pressure plate (8) when the actuator device (44) is not in operation, characterized in that the clutch comprises a swivel (34,37) which is arranged radially between the actuator device (44) and the driven shaft (15) and coaxially relative to the driven shaft (15), and a stationary clutch housing (3,4) enclosing the main parts (9,12,45) and the swivel (34,37), and that the swivel (34,37) is adapted for transferring electric or pressure fluid energy for operation of the actuator device (44) between an energy conductor (42) which is stationary relative to the clutch housing (3,4) and a rotary energy conductor (32) which is connected to the actuator device (44).
A clutch according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that he actuator device (14) is an electrical jack and that the conductors are electrical conductors.
A clutch according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the pressure spring (21) is formed from at least one cup spring, whose circumferential edge portions (20,22) are arranged to abut against the second portion (7) and the body (27) respectively.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.