Two-piece sector plate for a transfer case
AssigneeNew Venture Gear, Inc.
InventorsRandolph C. Williams, Burton N. Luther, Nanda K. Ambady
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Abstract
A two-piece sector plate is employed in an automotive vehicle transfer case. The sector includes a rotatable body and a cam block movably coupled thereto with a biasing device disposed therebetween. A shift rail mode pin rides along a camming surface of the cam block and along a camming surface of the sector body, wherein the camming surfaces have different radii. A method of operating the two-piece sector plate is also provided.
Claims32
An apparatus for use in an automotive vehicle transfer case comprising a sector plate, said sector plate including:
- a sector body rotatable about a rotational axis;
- a portion of a single cam block being coupled to and moving relative to said sector body, said portion having a block camming surface, said portion of said cam block moving in a generally radial direction in relation to said sector body;
- and
- a shift rail mode pin contacting against said block camming surface when said sector body is rotated to a first position but not when said sector body is rotated to a second position.
A method of operating a sector plate employed in an automotive vehicle transfer case comprising the steps of:
- varying a camming surface radius upon which a fork mode member rides by moving a first portion of said camming surface in relation to a second portion of said camming surface in response to sector plate output force requirements;
- compressing a single spring between a body and a block having said first portion;
- moving said block relative to said body in at least one direction;
- and
- maintaining sector plate input force requirements generally the same regardless of shifting mode positions, regardless of synchronization steps and regardless of hot and cold temperature differences.
A sector plate for use in an automotive vehicle comprising a body, said body including:
- a peripheral edge having a camming edge profile segment;
- an aperture coaxially aligned with a rotational axis of said body;
- an arcuately contoured slot disposed internal to said body;
- a receptacle inwardly extending from said peripheral edge immediately adjacent to said camming edge profile segment:
- a set of shift mode indentations being disposed along a second edge segment of said peripheral edge;
- and
- a spring being at least partially located within said receptacle.
A method of operating a sector plate within an automotive vehicle transfer case comprising the steps of:
- (a) rotating a sector body of said sector plate;
- (b) pivoting a portion of a cam block in relation to said sector body about a single pivot coupled to said sector body;
- and
- (c) alternately riding a member coupled to a fork along camming surfaces defined by segments of said sector body and said cam block while moving said member from one of said camming surfaces to another of said camming surfaces and back again.
A sector plate for use in an automotive vehicle comprising:
- (a) a body including:
- a peripheral edge having a camming edge profile segment;
- an aperture coaxially aligned with a rotational axis of said body;
- an arcuately contoured slot disposed internal to said body;
- and
- a receptacle inwardly extending from said peripheral edge immediately adjacent to said camming edge profile segment;
- (b) a cam block pivotably coupled to said body, a portion of said cam block being movably receivable within said receptacle of said body, said cam block including:
- a proximal portion having an opening pivotably coupled to said body;
- a neck portion extending from said proximal portion;
- a thickened portion extending from said neck portion, said thickened portion being thicker than said neck portion;
- and
- a camming edge profile segment being disposed along a peripheral edge of said thickened portion.
A method of operating a sector plate having a sector body employed in an automotive vehicle transfer case comprising the steps of:
- (a) reducing an effective camming surface radius of said sector plate by pivoting a cam block of said sector plate toward a central area of said sector plate, (b) pivoting said cam block relative to said central area about a fixed and single pivot that rotates with said central area (c) moving a camming surface of said cam block toward said sector body when a tooth-butt synchronization condition occurs;
- and (d) moving said camming surface of said cam block away from said sector body upon synchronization indexing past said tooth-butt condition.
An apparatus for use in an automotive vehicle transfer case comprising a sector plate, said sector plate including:
- a sector body being rotatable about a rotational axis;
- a portion of a cam block being movably coupled to said sector body, said portion having a block camming surface, said cam block having a cavity;
- and
- a biasing device pushing at least said portion of said cam block away from said sector body, said biasing device being compressed when said portion moves toward said sector body, an end of said biasing device being disposed in said cavity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.