Belt clutch
OwnerRonald A. Hollandinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An improved belt clutch engages to couple one shaft to at least one other shaft and disengaged to decouple the shafts. Known belt clutches fail to smoothly and completely disengage the belt from traction pulleys on the shafts and drag results. The improved belt clutch includes rollers outlining the engaged belt and constrain the disengaged belt to smoothly and completely disengage the belt from the traction pulleys. The new improved belt clutch provides, among other things, higher efficiency when driven in either direction and smoother operation when engaged or disengaged at high speed than prior art belt clutches.
Claims6
A belt clutch comprising:
- a first traction pulley;
- a second traction pulley;
- a belt rotationally coupling the first and second traction pulleys;
- means for putting the belt under tension to engage the belt clutch and for releasing the belt from tension to disengage the belt clutch;
- and
- a constraint residing outside the belt and spaced apart front the belt while the belt clutch is engaged, the constraint limiting the outward movement of portions of the belt between the traction pulleys when the belt is disengaged and providing very little resistance to tangential motion of the belt when the belt contacts the constraint.
A hybrid transmission comprising:
- at least two belt clutches in parallel between a motor shaft and a driven shaft, wherein each belt clutch has a different drive ratio.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.