Two-speed gearbox with integrated differential
AssigneeArvinMeritor Technology, LLC
InventorJohn L. Bennett
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A gearbox assembly includes a housing which contains a differential gear set and a two-speed reduction gear set. A spider drives differential pinion gears nested between outer pinion gears. A first and a second clutch that can be engaged “on the fly” achieve the two-speed functionally of the gearbox assembly. Another gearbox assembly includes an on-demand locking differential with a differential clutch located between differential axle side gears to selectively lock the differential axle side gears together and thereby lock the axle shafts.
Claims19
A two-speed gearbox assembly comprising:
- a housing;
- a case rotationally mounted within said housing;
- a differential spider mounted to said case, said differential spider comprising a plurality of legs which mount a plurality of inner differential pinion gears and a plurality of outer pinion gears;
- a first clutch mounted between said housing and said case to selectively lock an input side gear to said case to provide a first reduction ratio;
- and
- a second clutch mounted to said housing to selectively lock an opposite side gear to said housing to provide a second reduction ratio.
A two-speed gearbox assembly comprising:
- a housing;
- a case rotationally mounted within said housing;
- a differential spider mounted to said case, said differential spider comprising a plurality of legs which mount a plurality of inner differential pinion gears and a plurality of outer pinion gears;
- a first axle shaft engaged with said inner differential pinion gears, said first axle shaft defined along an axis of rotation;
- a second axle shaft engaged with each of said differential pinion gears, said second axle shaft defined along said axis of rotation;
- an input side gear coaxially mounted about said axis of rotation and engaged with said outer pinion gears;
- an opposite side gear coaxially mounted about said axis of rotation and engaged with said outer pinion gears;
- a first clutch mounted between said housing and said case to selectively lock said input side gear to said case to provide a first reduction ratio;
- and
- a second clutch mounted to said housing to selectively lock said opposite side gear to said housing to provide a second reduction ratio.
A method of selecting between a first and a second reduction ratio comprising the steps of:
- (1) selectively actuating a first clutch mounted between a housing and a case rotationally mounted within the housing to selectively lock an input side gear to the case to provide a first reduction ratio;
- and
- (2) selectively actuating a second clutch mounted to the housing to selectively lock an opposite side gear to the housing to provide a second reduction ratio.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.