Fichtel & Sachs Ag

Joachim Gimmler

Bernd Schoder

A hydrokinetic torque converter equipped with a bridging or lockup clutch. The bridging or lockup clutch has a piston and a friction plate between the piston and the converter housing. For the non-rotating connection of the piston, there is a carrier plate or hub disc, which carrier plate or hub disc is connected to the piston by means of tangential leaf springs. The carrier plate or hub disc is attached, by means of gear teeth, in a non-rotating fashion to a hub of the converter housing, such that there is no play between the hub disc and the hub in the axial direction, the circumferential direction, and the radial direction. The non-rotating connection between the hub disc and the hub can be accomplished by a deformation process.

Hydrokinetic lockup torque converter with lockup clutch

The invention relates to a hydrodynamic torque converter with a lock-up clutch. The converter circuit is charged with converter fluid via two lines which may be reversed. A further liquid path which allows cooling of the piston of the lock-up clutch on its back via throttle channels is provided in parallel with the pressure line for opening the lock-up clutch.

Hydrodynamic torque converter

In a hydrodynamic torque converter a pump wheel, a turbine wheel and a guide wheel are enclosed within a converter housing. These three wheels interact in a fluid cycle and are rotatable relative to one another. A controllable bridging clutch is located between the pump wheel and the turbine wheel and is disposed parallel to the torque transmission path between the two wheels. The clutch couples the turbine wheel to the pump wheel without any slippage and in dependence on the pressure of the hydraulic fluid in the converter housing. In the path of the bridging clutch, springs of a torsional vibration damper are arranged for dampening irregularities in the torque transmission on both the driving side and the driven side. A friction damper is connected in parallel with the torsional vibrational damper. When the bridging clutch is closed, the friction damper dampens the vibrational amplitude of the torsional vibration damper and consequently the vibrational amplitude of the turbine wheel relative to the converter housing. When the bridging clutch is open, the friction damper fixes the parts of the torsional vibration damper which are movable with respect to one another so that noise generation in the torque converter is reduced when the bridging clutch is open or disengaged as well as when it is closed or engaged.

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Dittelbrunn, Germany

Joachim Gimmler