Compound damper assembly for an automatic transmission
AssigneeFord Motor Company
InventorChing-Chung Ling
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A damper assembly for cushioning the application of a torque delivery clutch in a torque converter transmission wherein the converter provides a complementary hydrokinetic torque delivery path, the damper assembly including a pair of cushioning springs acting in parallel and a third spring arranged in series relationship with respect to the paired cushioning springs, the spring rates being chosen to provide dampening forces that vary nonlinearly with the magnitude of the torque delivered through the damper.
Claims10
In a hydrokinetic torque converter transmission adapted to deliver driving torque from an internal combustion engine to a drive shaft including a hydrokinetic torque converter having an impeller connected to said engine, a multiple ratio gear system having an output gear element connected to said drive shaft, said converter having a turbine connected to torque input elements of said gear system, and a mechanical torque delivery path in parallel relationship with respect to said hydrokinetic converter for establishing a mechanical torque flow path that is independent of the hydrokinetic torque flow path of the hydrokinetic converter;
- said torque flow path comprising a damper assembly having a first damper plate connected to said impeller, a torque delivery shaft connected to an input element of said gear system, a torque output plate in said damper assembly, an intermediate damper plate in said damper assembly located between said first and second damper plates;
- a first set of damper springs in said damper assembly establishing a yieldable spring connection between said first damper plate and said intermediate damper plate, and second and third sets of damper springs arranged in parallel disposition one with respect to the other and establishing a yieldable spring connection between said intermediate damper plate and said output damper plate, said first spring set being arranged in series disposition with respect to one of the other two sets of springs whereby said damper assembly is characterized by three characteristic operating stages including a first stage in which one set of springs of said other set acts in series relationship with said first set to establish a relatively low spring rate, a second characteristic operating stage wherein said one set of said other sets of springs establishes a spring damping force and a third characteristic operating stage wherein said second and third sets of springs act in parallel relationship in unison with the first series of springs inactive thereby establishing a final damper spring rate of high magnitude.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.