Tapered Involute Sector Gear and Variable Ratio Rack Recirculating-Ball Style Steering Gearbox
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsJoseph Washnock, Jackson E. Barry, JR., Dale Killins
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A recirculating-ball style gearbox for a vehicle steering system is provided. The gearbox has a rack with rack-teeth that are capable of providing variable ratio steering, where the rack-teeth are in mesh with the involute-teeth of a tapered sector gear. The involute-teeth of the sector gear have arrays of helical meshing lines extending across the meshing surfaces of the teeth, wherein the array of helical meshing lines have leads that decrease in length moving radially outward across the meshing surfaces.
Claims20
A recirculating-ball style steering gearbox comprising:
- a rack having rack-teeth capable of providing variable ratio steering;
- and
- a tapered sector gear having involute-teeth in mesh with the rack-teeth, each involute-tooth having an array of helical meshing lines extending across a meshing surface.
A sector gear for a recirculating-ball style steering system comprising:
- at least one tapered involute-tooth having a meshing surface capable of contacting variable ratio rack teeth along an array of helices, the helices having leads that decrease in length moving radially outward across the meshing surface.
A gearbox comprising:
- a rack having a least one rack-tooth with a concave meshing surface on a first side and a convex meshing surface on a second side;
- and
- a tapered sector gear having at least one involute-tooth with a first tooth thickness at a first pitch circle adjacent a first side of the tooth larger than a second tooth thickness at a second pitch circle adjacent a second side of the tooth.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.