Frictionless Clutch

Abstract

In most applications in the power transmission field, a means must be provided to repeatedly engage and disengage a powered spinning shaft from a receiving shaft. The invention introduces a simple new way of doing so by taking advantage of a common universal joint's inability to continue transferring torque beyond a certain angle. When the angle is reached, the universal joint locks up and acts as a simple pivoting arm. This pivoting arm is used to transfer the torque to a receiving shaft which is also equipped with a pivoting shaft inserted into the elongated tube of the universal joint (FIG. 4). At lesser angles, the universal joint tube simply spins around the receiving shaft's pivoting shaft, producing no movement of the receiving shaft (FIG. 3). This mechanism accomplishes a clutching and declutching action with no friction wearing surfaces, thus a frictionless clutch.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.