Hydraulic apparatus with return to neutral mechanism
AssigneeHydro-Gear Limited Partnership
InventorsHerb Poplawski, Michael W. Taylor, Ryan S. Buescher
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A control mechanism for a hydraulic drive apparatus such as a transaxle having a hydraulic pump and moveable swash plate mounted in a housing including a control arm for moving the swash plate between forward and reverse positions and a unidirectional return to neutral mechanism for biasing and returning the swash plate to a neutral position when the control arm is in one of the reverse or forward positions but not from the other position.
Claims25
A hydraulic apparatus, comprising:
- a housing;
- a trunnion arm extending from the housing;
- a return arm rotatably mounted on the trunnion arm and attached to the housing, the return arm comprising a stop;
- a control arm attached to the trunnion arm;
- a pair of scissor return arms rotatably mounted coaxially with the return arm and the control arm;
- and
- a spring attached to the scissor return arms to bias the scissor return arms against the stop.
A return to neutral mechanism for a hydraulic apparatus comprising:
- a first scissor return assembly comprising a first arm and a second arm rotationally separated from one another;
- a second scissor return assembly comprising a third arm and a fourth arm rotationally separated from one another, wherein the first arm and the third arm interact with a stop to establish a neutral position for the hydraulic apparatus;
- and
- a spring mounted on the second arm and the fourth arm to bias the first arm and the third arm toward the stop.
A drive apparatus, comprising a first and second axle driving apparatus, each axle driving apparatus comprising a housing, a trunnion arm extending from the housing, and a return to neutral mechanism having an orientation;
- wherein the first return to neutral mechanism on the first axle driving apparatus may be oriented in a plurality of directions and the second return to neutral mechanism on the second axle driving apparatus may be oriented in a plurality of directions.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.