Zf Friedrichshafen Ag

Christoph Gajda

Jürgen Ackermann

Thomas Adelmann

Michael Heuler

A hydrodynamic clutch device includes a pump wheel, a housing connecting the pump wheel to a drive, a turbine wheel connected to a takeoff, the turbine wheel being located in the housing and cooperating with the pump wheel to form a hydrodynamic circuit, and a bridging clutch located in the housing and having a piston located between the hydrodynamic circuit and a pressure space. The piston is movable between an engaged position and a released position. At least one through opening in the piston allows an exchange of clutch fluid between the hydrodynamic circuit and the pressure space regardless of the position of the piston and a non-return valve allows only flow from the hydrodynamic circuit to the pressure space when the clutch is released.

Hydrodynamic clutch device

A hydrodynamic clutch device has at least one pump wheel, connected to a drive by way of a clutch housing, and a turbine wheel, connected to a takeoff, to form a hydrodynamic circuit. The device also has a bridging clutch with at least one piston, which can shift between a released position and an engaged position, and at least one friction surface acting between this piston and an adjacent support to connect the drive to the takeoff. When the piston is in the released position, the bridging clutch allows the hydrodynamic circuit to be used to transmit at least most of the torque between the drive and takeoff, whereas, when the piston is in the engaged position, the bridging clutch produces a bypass around the hydrodynamic circuit for the transmission of torque. The barrier clutch cooperates with at least one pressure barrier installed between the hydrodynamic circuit and the pressure space. This separation more-or-less completely prevents the exchange of clutch fluid between the hydrodynamic circuit and the pressure space, regardless of the instantaneous position of the piston between its released position and its engaged position and thus regardless of the shift status of the bridging clutch.

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Schweinfurt, Germany

Christoph Gajda