Drive assemblies
AssigneeSmiths Group PLC
InventorJoseph Kopecek
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A drive assembly for providing two outputs from a motor to actuators or the like has a first drive shaft connected with the motor via a torque limiter and a reduction gear. A high efficiency spur gear also connects the motor with a second, parallel drive shaft via a second torque limiter and a reduction gear. The two drive shafts are also interconnected by a low efficiency gear provided by worm pinions on the shafts and a worm gear wheel engaging both pinions, which only transfers load between the drive outputs if there is uneven torsional loading in excess of the settings of the torque limiters.
Claims11
A drive assembly comprising:
- a motor;
- a drive input connected with said motor to be rotated by said motor;
- a first torque limiter;
- a first drive output driven by said drive input via said first torque limiter;
- a second torque limiter;
- a high efficiency gear arrangement;
- a second drive output driven by said drive input via said high efficiency gear arrangement and said second torque limiter;
- and a low efficiency gear arrangement interconnecting said first and second drive outputs and operable to transfer load between said first and second drive outputs only if there is uneven torsional loading between said two drive outputs above settings of said torque limiters.
A drive assembly comprising:
- a motor;
- a drive input connected with said motor to be rotated by said motor;
- a first torque limiter;
- a first drive output driven by said drive input via said first torque limiter;
- a second torque limiter;
- a spur gear arrangement;
- a second drive output driven by said drive input via said spur gear arrangement and said second torque limiter;
- and a worm pinion and worm gear arrangement interconnecting said first and second drive outputs and operable to transfer load between said first and second drive outputs if there is uneven torsional loading between said two drive outputs above settings of said torque limiters.
A drive assembly comprising:
- first and second parallel output shafts;
- a worm pinion on each said shaft towards one end;
- a common worm gear, said worm gear engaging respective ones of said worm pinions to provide a low efficiency synchronizing interconnection between said two shafts;
- a rotary drive input;
- a first torque limiter connected between said first output shaft and said rotary drive input;
- a transfer gear;
- and a second torque limiter, said second output shaft being connected with said rotary drive input via said transfer gear and said second torque limiter such that said rotary drive input rotates both said output shafts synchronously.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.