Zhejiang Cfmoto Power Co., Ltd.

Fuying Cheng

Zhenxiang Kuang

Jiajun Li

Zhangping Yuan

Minjie Lai

Guogui Lai

Zhiyong Chen

Minqiang Xiong

Jun Zhao

Yongzhou Zhao

Yonggang Cui

An actuator is used to longitudinally move a spline sleeve for controlling drive mode of a differential on an off-road vehicle. The actuator's motor rotates an eccentric knob through a drive train including intermediate gears and a worm gear. The eccentic knob is linked to the spline sleeve through a torsion spring carried on a pivot plate, with legs of the torsion spring pushing a slide block, transferring a moment provided by the eccentric knob into a linear slide force. The pivot plate and torsion spring are jointly mounted on the actuator housing by a hub, opposite the rotational axis of the eccentric knob from the slide block. The slide block includes a contact which completes a circuit through conductive pads on the actuator housing, so the position of the slide block can be directly sensed.

Actuator for differential mode shift with pivot link

An actuator is used to longitudinally move a spline sleeve for controlling drive mode of a differential on an off-road vehicle. The actuator's motor rotates an eccentric knob through a drive train including intermediate gears and a worm gear. The eccentric knob is linked to the spline sleeve through a torsion spring carried on a pivot plate, with legs of the torsion spring pushing a slide block, transferring a moment provided by the eccentric knob into a linear slide force. The pivot plate and torsion spring are jointly mounted on the actuator housing by a hub, opposite the rotational axis of the eccentric knob from the slide block. The slide block includes a contact which completes a circuit through conductive pads on the actuator housing, so the position of the slide block can be directly sensed.

Internal structure of actuator for differential mode shift

Actuator for differential mode shift with position sensing circuit

Actuator for differential mode shift with spring linkage

An outer ring of an inner joint of the constant speed transmission shaft is provided with a vehicle speed sensor rotating synchronously with the inner joint, and the drive axle is fixedly equipped with a signal collecting device opposite to the vehicle speed sensor and configured to monitor a rotation speed signal of the vehicle speed sensor. The inner joint of the constant speed transmission shaft transmits torque during the running of a vehicle, and through monitoring a rotation speed of the inner joint, the rotation data of rear wheels can be obtained. By mounting the vehicle speed sensor on the inner joint and fixing the signal collecting device on the drive axle for monitoring the rotation speed signal of the vehicle speed sensor, the signal reading is stable, which facilitates the maintenance, reduces the cost, and can satisfy the environmental requirements.

All-terrain vehicle and wheel speed signal collecting device

A constant velocity ball joint uses a star shaped sleeve with a splined connection to its shaft. The sleeve is longitudinally retained on its shaft using a retaining ring in an outwardly facing groove of the shaft. The star shaped sleeve has a 30&#xb0; assembly assist chamfer angle on one side, as well as a 45&#xb0; transition chamfer angle and a 65&#xb0; ramp chamfer angle facing the opposite direction. These angles control the diameter of the retaining ring as it is compressed inward into the groove during assembly and disassembly. The star shaped sleeve can be used in a dynamic length CV joint, with the splines of a configuration that allows longitudinal sliding of the sleeve on the shaft, so the shell of the dynamic length CV joint still can be of the spherical race type.

Spline slip constant velocity joint

A type of constant velocity universal joint has the spline slip structure, including the steel wire retaining ring and the star-shaped sleeve which are both mounted on a common axis, and the steel wire retaining ring limiting device. The said steel wire retaining ring limiting device is a groove arranged on the said star-shaped sleeve and used for holding the said steel wire retaining ring. The said steel wire retaining ring may be elliptic or circular. The movement in the radial direction of the steel wire retaining ring will be limited by the groove on the star shaped sleeve and there occurs a certain contraction, in addition to appropriate the chamfer angle of the groove, when removing the spline shaft from the star-shaped sleeve.

Type of constant velocity universal joint with the spline slip structure

A mechanical locking differential includes a driving ring in a differential housing between right and left active components. The driving ring is in line with the input bevel gear. The differential housing has a thin wall in a single, integral shell around the driving ring. Several hollow cylindrical shaft pins are used to attached the driving ring to the differential housing, with the shaft pins being driven radially relative to the transverse axis of the differential outputs in an interference fit with the housing and the driving ring. The shaft pins are held from axially backing out by two small rivets. The shaft pins preferably have a threaded inner diameter which assists in removal. The shaft pin attachment allows the bevel gear to extend closer to the transverse axis without obstruction.

Mechanical locking differential

A mechanical locking differential includes a drive lock motor supported by the differential housing. The drive lock motor is disposed opposite the input bevel gear assembly, higher than the differential input and the differential outputs. The drive lock motor is coupled to a differential lock with a gear train that includes a worm drive, to output rotational motion on a lock output gear. The lock output gear causes sliding motion of a rack and a rack follower, pressing the differential lock into or out of engagement. The drive lock motor assembly is disposed fully between the right and left extents of the differential.

Locking differential with in-line, in-profile locking drive motor

A mechanical locking differential primarily includes a drive ring and right and left driven rings that can move sideways into and out of engagement with the drive ring. The drive ring and the driven rings have teeth with an inverted trapezoidal shape with a significant clearance, such as a pressure angle of &#x2212;1&#xb0; and a clearance of 20% circumferentially. A central ramping separator ring provides a ramping mechanism with inclines that push the driven rings out of engagement with the drive ring when the associated half axle rotates faster than the drive ring, with the ramping action occurring within the teeth clearance.

A half shaft connects to the mounting bracket of the wheel in a splined connection. The straight external spline of the half shaft is modified to a helical or involute external spline, in which the helix angle adopted is small. The mounting bracket of the wheel can be longitudinally advanced by hand assembly only part way onto the half shaft. The rest of the longitudinal advancement during assembly occurs by tightening the nut to completely eliminate the fit clearance between the external spline and its corresponding mating arrangement. Various road tests of vehicles verify that, when using the present invention, the nut does not loosen during use of the vehicle. The invention enables the locking force of the nut to be reduced, and assembly and maintenance are convenient.

Connecting structure mounting wheel to half shaft

A drive shaft is formed by welding two spline shaft heads to a hollow middle section of tubing. The spline shaft head includes teeth which are crowned to permit an angular offset of the drive shaft relative to cylindrical splines of connectors, such that the end faces of the teeth define a barrel shape. The teeth of the spline shaft head include a side face curvature, defining a football-shaped tooth cross-section. Torque is rotationally transmitted across a permitted angular offset of the drive shaft relative to cylindrically arranged linear splines of drive and driven connectors (i.e., relative to the engine output axis of rotation and the differential input axis of rotation), thereby avoiding the use of prior art universal joints.

Drive shaft

A transmission mechanism of an all-terrain vehicle is provided, which includes an independent suspension axle. The independent suspension axle includes a left driving half-axle and a right driving half-axle. A jaw differential is provided at a joint of the left driving half-axle and the right driving half-axle and is configured to allow half-axles at two sides to rotate at different speeds when the axle of the all-terrain vehicle transmits power to the half-axles at the two sides, and prevent a wheel at one side from slipping. For the all-terrain vehicle adopting the jaw differential, side tipping, side slipping, and tire scuffing are not apt to occur, thus the vehicle may get rid of stuck conditions such as slipping, and the working reliability of the all-terrain vehicle is improved. An all-terrain vehicle adopting the transmission mechanism is further provided.

Growing community of inventors

Hangzhou, China

Fuying Cheng