Clutch cooling apparatus for stepless variable speed transmission
AssigneeSuzuki Jidosha Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTomohiko Motohashi
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A clutch cooling apparatus for a stepless variable speed transmission having a clutch for transmitting driving power from an input shaft to an output shaft by clamping a friction plate connected to the output shaft between a pressure plate and an end plate connected to the input shaft, including a first clutch cooling arrangement for cooling the clutch during a predetermined running condition of the vehicle and a second clutch cooling arrangement for cooling the clutch during operation of the vehicle engine regardless of the running condition of the vehicle.
Claims8
In a stepless variable speed transmission of a vehicle having a clutch for transmitting the driving power of a vehicle engine from an input shaft to an output shaft by clamping a friction plate between a pressure plate and an end plate connected to the input shaft, and a clutch cooling apparatus for supplying cooling oil to the clutch, the improvement wherein said clutch cooling apparatus comprises:
- first clutch cooling means for cooling said clutch upon a predetermined running condition of said vehicle;
- and
- second clutch cooling means for cooling said clutch during driving of said engine irrespective of the running condition of said vehicle, including conduit means for continuously carrying cooling oil to said clutch whenever the engine is operating.
In a stepless variable speed transmission of a vehicle having a clutch for transmitting the driving power of a vehicle engine from an input shaft to an output shaft by clamping a friction plate between a pressure plate and an end plate connected to the input shaft, and a clutch cooling apparatus for supplying cooling oil to the clutch, the improvement wherein said clutch cooling apparatus comprising:
- first clutch cooling means for cooling said clutch upon a predetermined running condition of said vehicle;
- second clutch cooling means for cooling said clutch during driving of said engine irrespective of the running condition of said vehicle;
- said clutch being a friction type clutch, said first clutch cooling means including an oil pump for pumping cooling oil, first oil condition means connected between said oil pump and said clutch for carrying cooling oil from said oil pump to said clutch, and valve means for selectively interrupting the flow of cooling oil from said oil pump to said clutch depending on the frictional engagement state of said clutch;
- and
- said second clutch cooling means including a second conduit means connected between said oil pump and said clutch for continuously carrying cooling oil from said oil pump to said clutch whenever the vehicle engine is operating, said first conduit means being dimensioned so as to permit a substantially larger amount of cooling oil to flow therethrough than said second conduit means.
In a vehicle transmission apparatus including a stepless variable speed transmission, a friction type hydraulic clutch, and a clutch cooling apparatus for supplying cooling oil to said clutch, the improvement wherein said clutch cooling apparatus comprises:
- a first clutch cooling means for constantly and continuously supplying a first quantity of cooling oil to said clutch, and a selectively actuable second clutch cooling means operable simultaneously with and in addition to said first clutch cooling means for selectively supplying to said clutch a second quantity of cooling oil which is substantially larger than said first quantity of cooling oil, and actuation means responsive to a predetermined frictional engagement state of said clutch for effecting selective actuation of said second clutch cooling means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.