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US 5,979,260 AGranted
Anti-lash gear assembly
AssigneeCummins Engine Company, Inc.
InventorsCharles E. Long, Ilya L. Piraner, Dennis R. Tibbetts
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An engine includes a gear train to provide engine timing. There is a technique for minimizing the backlash and noise caused by the gear train. There is also an anti-backlash gear assembly useful to reduce backlash in the gear train. One gear assembly has at least two gear wheels with the circular thickness of the teeth of one gear wheel being less than the circular thickness of the other gear wheel. There is also a gear assembly having a bias torque of at least about 100 foot-pounds. There is also a device carried on an anti-lash gear assembly to generally align teeth of the assembly for installation.
Claims33
An anti-backlash gear assembly, comprising:
- a first gear wheel with a first number of circumferentially disposed first teeth;
- a second gear wheel engaging said first wheel with a spring bias configured to yieldingly rotate said first and second wheels relative to each other about a generally common rotational center, said second wheel having a second number of circumferentially disposed second teeth each paired to a corresponding one of said first teeth to provide a number of composite teeth, said composite teeth each having a composite circular thickness that varies with rotation of said first wheel and said second wheel relative to one another;
- and
- wherein said first teeth each have a first circular thickness and said second teeth each have a second circular thickness, and said first circular thickness is at least about 0.002 of an inch greater than said second circular thickness.
1 more element
A system with a gear train assembly, comprising:
- a first gear with a number of teeth defining a number of gaps therebetween;
- and
- a second gear meshed with said first gear, said second gear having two toothed gear wheels in an anti-lash configuration including a spring bias to yieldingly rotate said two toothed gear wheel relative to one another, said two toothed gear wheels defining a number of pairs of teeth each having a first tooth from one of said wheels and a second tooth from another of said wheels to form a composite tooth to engage a corresponding one of said gaps, said pairs of teeth each having a composite circular thickness that varies in accordance with relative rotation of said two toothed gear wheels, said first tooth having a first circular thickness and said second tooth having a second circular thickness nominally less than said first circular thickness.
A method, comprising:
- (a) providing a first gear wheel with a first number of circumferentially disposed first teeth each having a first circular thickness;
- (b) selecting a second gear wheel with a second number of circumferentially disposed second teeth each having a second circular thickness nominally less than said first circular thickness;
- and
- (c) assembling said first and second gear wheels in an anti-lash gear assembly after said selecting, said assembling includes providing a spring bias between said first gear wheel and said second gear wheel.
1 more element
An anti-backlash gear assembly, comprising:
- a first gear wheel with a first number of circumferentially disposed teeth;
- a second gear wheel engaging said first wheel with a spring bias configured to yieldingly rotate said first and second wheels relative to each other about a generally common rotational center, said second wheel defining a second number of circumferentially disposed teeth each being paired to a corresponding one of said first teeth to provide a number of composite teeth each configured to vary in size in accordance with force acting against said spring bias;
- and
- wherein said spring bias is configured to provide a maximum bias torque of at least 100 foot-pounds relative to a radius from said center to said first and second teeth.
1 more element
A system with a gear train assembly, comprising:
- a first gear with a number of teeth defining a number of gaps therebetween;
- and
- a second gear having two toothed gear wheels engaging each other in an anti-lash configuration defining a number of pairs of teeth, at least one of said pairs of teeth engaging a corresponding one of said gaps, said wheels being configured to rotate relative to each other about a generally common rotational center, said second gear being configured to provide a maximum bias torque of at least about 100 foot-pounds relative to a radius from said center to said pairs of teeth.
A method, comprising:
- (a) providing a first gear wheel with a first number of circumferentially disposed first teeth each having a first circular thickness;
- (b) providing a second gear wheel with a second number of circumferentially disposed second teeth each having a second circular thickness nominally less than said first circular thickness;
- (c) assembling said first and second gear wheels with a spring bias therebetween;
- and
- (d) limiting a maximum load on said second gear to a load on said spring bias sufficient to generally align said first teeth and said second teeth.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.