Zahnradfabrik Friedrichshafen, Ag.

Knorr-Bremse Gmbh

Alfred Magg

Gerold Bieber

Manfred Fischer

Walter Griesser

Franz Boss

Peter Fischer

Gunther Reifinger

Gunther Thurau

Christian Fuchs

Drive device with variable torque-limiting system

Power-drive transmission with viscous clutch

A driving gear having external teeth in mesh with internal teeth of a sliding sleeve, adapted to be axially shifted into meshing engagement with external teeth of a driven gear coaxially adjoining the driving gear, carries several peripherally spaced, universally jointed rockers which project radially under spring pressure into axially extending inner peripheral guide grooves of the sleeve. A synchro ring coaxial with the two gears is rotationally entrained by the driving gear, through the intermediary of the rockers thereof, and has a clutch surface confronting a similar surface of the driven gear across a narrow clearance which closes when the ring, under an axial thrust from the rockers in response to an incipient coupling shift of the sleeve, is moved toward the driven gear. As long as a speed difference exists between the two gears, the synchro ring exerts upon the rockers a peripheral force which urges them into lateral pockets of the respective guide grooves so as to prevent a completion of the coupling shift until synchronism has been established. The driven gear and the synchro ring may be duplicated on opposite sides of the driving gear and the sleeve.

Clutch assembly for gear transmission

A gear-change mechanism for a conventional two-range speed-selection transmission comprises a gear-shift lever which is coupled to a shaft in a housing, this shaft carrying a pair of strikers which engage elements connected to the shifting rod. According to the invention, the striker forms a packet with a plurality of check plates disposed between and in front of and behind the striker plates and held on the shaft for axial displacement therewith. The check plates are guided in the housing so that they cannot rotate with the shaft.

Gear-change mechanism for a gear-change transmission consisting of a

A disk clutch inserted between a torque converter and a synchromesh gear train of an automotive transmission comprises a driving friction-plate carrier coupled with the turbine of the converter and a driven friction-plate carrier coupled with an input shaft of the gear train, the driving carrier forming two fluidically separated concentric cylinder spaces between itself and an operating piston embraced thereby. The inner cylinder is of smaller effective area and is pressurized in normal operation by hydraulic fluid (oil) but can be temporarily depressurized, during gear shifting, by a valve controlled by the shifting mechanism; this space communicates via an internal flow channel of the driving carrier with a radial bore in that carrier occupied by a centrifugally and/or resiliently loaded body of a quick-venting valve normally blocking an exit port leading from the outer cylinder space to the interior of a surrounding housing. Upon the unblocking of that exit port in response to depressurization of the inner cylinder space, the piston is moved by a Belleville spring into a disengagement position until the inner cylinder space is repressurized whereupon fluid from that space re-enters the internal flow channel and represses the quick-venting valve to this blocking position while also passing through the valve body into the outer cylinder space to help return the piston to its engagement position.

Clutch assembly for semiautomatic gear transmission

A transmission shiftable to change transmission ratios by the operation of a member whose effectiveness depends upon a pressure fluid, e.g. through a valve communicating the fluid to actuators of the gear-change system, has a clutch connecting the output shaft of a prime mover as an internal-combustion engine with the input shaft of the transmission. According to the invention, the clutch-operating cylinder is connected by an entraining device with a valve controlling the pressure fluid. A lost motion may be provided between the operating member of the cylinder and the valve seats to ensure full opening of the clutch before operation of the transmission is enabled.

Transmission-clutch operating system

Two gears idling on a shaft can be selectively coupled therewith by an interposed jaw clutch including a central gear fixed to the shaft and a surrounding ring gear axially slidable thereon for engagement with jaw teeth on either of the two flanking idler gears. Two blocking rings on opposite sides of the central gear are entrained thereby for joint rotation with freedom of limited relative angular displacement by frictional contact with the adjoining idler gears between two extreme relative position in which these rings prevent the shifting of the ring gear into engagement with the jaw teeth of the corresponding idler gear; such engagement is possible only in an intermediate angular position of the respective blocking ring in which several stop teeth on the blocking ring register with matching peripheral indentations on the ring gear. The ring gear has several angularly equispaced inner peripheral recesses accommodating radially slidable keys of which at least one coacts on standstill and at low shaft speeds with respective pairs of bosses on either blocking ring to move the latter into its nonblocking position upon an axial sliding of the ring gear toward it, these keys being centrifugally displaced outwardly at higher shaft speeds so as to be ineffectual.

Growing community of inventors

Friedrichshafen, Germany

Alfred Magg