Power transmitting apparatus

A power transmitting apparatus for transmitting power from a driving side to a driven side through at least one of a fluid joint means and a clutch mechanism, said clutch mechanism comprising:

• a rolling bearing clutch including an inner ring, an outer ring and a plurality of rollers interposed between the outer periphery of said inner ring and the inner periphery of said outer ring, said rolling bearing clutch being disposed between the driving side and the driven side for performing ON/OFF operations by allowing the track surfaces of said inner ring and said outer ring to move near to each other or be away from each other, wherein the driving side and the driven side are mechanically connected to each other by shifting said rolling bearing clutch to an ON position;
• and
• thrusting means for shifting the track surfaces of said inner ring and said outer ring in said rolling bearing clutch to move near each other,
• wherein said rolling bearing clutch is constructed in such a way that said rollers are inclined with a predetermined twist angle (.beta.) relative to the center axis of said inner and outer rings, each of the track surfaces of said inner ring and said outer ring exhibits a hyperboloid contour that is a revolving locus scribed when said rollers are turned about the center axis, and when said inner and outer rings are relatively rotated in one direction, said rolling bearing clutch is locked while being freely rotatable in the reverse direction,
• wherein a contact angle in at least one of contact portions of each of said rollers with track surfaces of said outer ring and said inner ring as seen in the axial direction of said rollers is set to be larger than the frictional angle corresponding to the static frictional coefficient at the contact portion, whereby when said inner and outer rings are relatively rotated in the locking direction, said rollers can slide at the contact portions with the track surfaces of said inner ring and said outer ring, and
• wherein said inner and outer rings are locked by thrusting said inner or outer ring with thrusting means while said inner ring and said outer ring are relatively rotated in said locking direction, whereby said rolling bearing clutch is shifted to the ON position, and said rollers are allowed to slide at the contact portions on the track surfaces of said inner ring and said outer ring by releasing said thrusting means from the thrust position, whereby said rolling bearing clutch is shifted to the OFF position.