Roughened ring gear bearing surface
AssigneeDana Corporation
InventorGary Lee Sturm
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A connection for preventing relative movement between coupled members in a clamped joint. In particular, ring gear/differential housing members are connected across a roughened surface finish providing protrusions and allow positive load transfer without slippage. Different methods are proposed to achieve the roughening, or surface modification, of the backside of the ring gear surface, and this design provides increased frictional coefficients without adversely affecting performance of the differential assembly. The simplicity and low cost of this connection makes it particularly useful for a wide variety of these bolted assemblies.
Claims10
A gear assembly, comprising:
- a ring gear having a relatively flat face perpendicular to its axis of rotation, said face having a roughened surface with an increased coefficient of friction;
- a gear retaining member for receiving said ring gear, said retaining member having a relatively flat face opposite and parallel to said roughened surface of said ring gear;
- and
- a series of fasteners for clamping said roughened surface of said ring gear in direct contact with said face of said ring gear retaining member.
A method for transmitting transverse loads across and preventing relative sliding between two clamped together members, said method comprising:
- providing a first relatively flat face on a first load carrying member parallel to the direction of the transverse loads;
- providing a second relatively flat face parallel to and facing said first face on a second load carrying member;
- roughening a surface of said first face to provide a roughened surface providing an increased coefficient of friction between said first and second faces thereby providing enhanced frictional characteristics;
- and
- clamping said first member to said second member across said roughened surface.
A gear assembly, comprising:
- a ring gear having a first substantially planar face perpendicular to an axis of rotation of said ring gear, said planar face having a roughened surface with an increased coefficient of friction;
- a differential case for receiving said ring gear, said differential case having a second substantially planar face opposite and parallel to said roughened surface of said ring gear;
- and
- a series of fasteners for clamping said roughened surface of said ring gear in direct contact with said face of said ring gear retaining member, said fasteners in conjunction with said roughened surface determining a clamping force between said ring gear and said differential case.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.