Skf Compagnie D'applications Mecaniques

Alain Bordes

A freewheel of the cam type has a series of jamming cams 1 held by a cage 4 between a shaft 3 and an outer sleeve 2. The cams 1 are held in recesses 5 in the cage, which is a single integral moulding, by an integral spring strip 9 which extends around the outer periphery of the cage 4 and has elastic tabs 10 which project into the recesses 5 and bear against circumferentially extending surfaces 11 on the cams 1. They thus exert a substantially radial force 12 and a reaction on the contact line 13 to produce a torque 8 on the cams. The spring strip 9 is fixed angularly and axially with respect to the cage 4 by lugs 15 on the cage 4 fitting in openings 16 in the strip.

Freewheel or unidirectional clutch

Cam-type freewheel, characterized by the fact that the cage is made in one piece in moulded material with roughly rectangular recesses taking the cams, and by the fact that the continuous strip spring is placed round the periphery of the cage and comprises, at right angles to each recess, one or more elastic tabs entering the recess and bearing against the base of the cam in the proximity of the inner bush and so exerting on it a roughly tangential and preferably slightly outwardly oblique lateral thrust, with the angular and axial immobility of the spring with respect to the cage being provided by studs or lugs carried by one of these components and entering openings made in the other.

Growing community of inventors

Trappes, France

Alain Bordes