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US 4,232,756 AGranted
Motor-vehicle drive-shaft assembly
AssigneeAudi NSU Auto Union Aktiengesellschaft
InventorHartmut Bathelt
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A drive shaft of a motor vehicle has a pair of coaxial input and output shaft stubs having their confronting ends provided with radially outwardly extending flanges. A circumferentially corrugated sheet-steel tube of substantially greater diameter than the shaft stubs connects the outer peripheries of these flanges together. Thus the tube transmits torque between the two stub shafts but nonetheless allows limited relative radial and axial displacement therebetween to prevent vibration transmission.
Claims7
A shaft assembly for interconnecting an engine and a load, said assembly comprising:
- a small-diameter input shaft lying generally on an axis and having a pair of ends one of which is adapted to be connected to said engine and the other of which has a predetermined shaft diameter;
- a small-diameter output shaft lying generally on said axis and having a pair of ends one of which is adapted to be connected to said load and the other of which has a predetermined shaft diameter;
- respective rigid and radially outwardly tapering input and output flanges fixed on the other ends of said input and output shafts and extending radially outwardly therefrom;
- and
- a large-diameter torque-transmitting and circumferentially corrugated tube centered generally on said axis and having axially spaced input and output ends respectively fixed to said input and output flanges, said tube being elastically radially and axially deformable but said input and output ends being relatively angularly nondisplaceable, said tube having an inner diameter equal to at least twice either of said shaft diameters and an outer diameter equal to at least three times either of said shaft diameters.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.