Warner Electric Brake & Clutch Company

Charles W Modersohn

The blades of a rotary lawn mower are driven by a constantly rotating shaft through a clutch-brake assembly which, when the operator leaves the operating station of the mower such as the mower handles, automatically disengages the blades from the shaft and brakes the blades while permitting the shaft to continue to rotate. The clutch-brake assembly is self-energizing and normally is engaged but is held in the disengaged condition by an actuator which also is self-energized and which initially is energized by a spring. The latter is effective to disengage the clutch and actuate the brake thereby to prevent the blades from rotating until the operator moves a manual member at the operating station to overcome the spring which initially energizes the actuator. This de-energizes the actuator so that the brake is disengaged and the clutch is engaged whereby the shaft rotates the blades.

Clutch-brake assembly for rotary implements

A clutch-brake assembly includes input and output hubs, respectively, fixed and journaled on a rotatable shaft. A coil spring secured for movement with the output hub normally is wound into driving engagement between the input and the output hubs. A sleeve telescoped over the spring is fixed to the output hub and a low inertia braking member loosely mounted on the free end of the sleeve is held against substantial movement in both radial and axial directions with respect to the sleeve. In one form of the invention, a tang on the spring projects into a slot in the braking member and thus connects the member with the spring so the member normally rotates with the shaft but, when a braking torque is applied to the member, the spring is unwound from between the two hubs to disengage from them and subsequently to transmit the braking torque to the output hub to retard rotation thereof. In another form of the invention, a tang is integrally formed with the braking member to engage the input end of the spring. Intermediate the ends of the first convolution of the input end of the spring, a bend extends axially outward to hold the braking member normally away from the input end of the spring. When the braking member is pushed toward the spring during braking, the input end of the spring rocks outwardly to engage with the tang so the spring is unwound from the hubs by relative rotation between the braking member and the output hub.

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Beloit, WI, United States of America

Charles W Modersohn