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Bando Chemical Industries, Inc.

Masakazu Domoto

Shuichi Nagaya

Hirofumi Miyata

Shinichiro Nishikawa

Makoto Tokuda

Hiroo Kiko

Masahiko Satoda

In a belt-driven auxiliary equipment driving apparatus for vehicle engines, a one-way clutch-integrated pulley is disposed which includes a bearing for relatively rotatably supporting inner and outer rings and a clutch mechanism for effecting or blocking torque transmission between the inner and outer rings by changing the tilting direction of sprags according to the direction of relative rotation of the inner and outer rings. In such a case, a cage of the clutch mechanism is connected to a cage of the bearing. The cage of the bearing is rotated in the same direction as that of relative rotation of the outer ring at a relative rotational speed lower than that of the outer ring, and as a result, the relative speed of bodily movement of each sprag around the inner ring is made slower than the relative rotational speed of the outer ring. During idling of the inner and outer rings, each sprag thereby slides also on the outer ring and the speed of slide of each sprag on the inner ring is lowered. This avoids abrasion from progressing only in the cam surface of each sprag in contact with the inner ring, thereby improving functional durability of the clutch.

One-way clutch

A one-way clutch is arranged so that a plurality of intermediate members, which are each retained in a cage, each wedge between inner and outer rings when the inner and outer rings relatively rotate in a locking direction and each rock opposite to the direction of the wedging when the inner and outer rings relatively rotate in an idling direction, are pressed in the direction of the wedging by spring members. In this one-way clutch, each spring member includes a pair of coil springs that are juxtaposed to align in an axial direction of the inner and outer rings, are retained at one ends thereof by the cage and resiliently contact at the other ends thereof with the intermediate member. The one ends of both the coil springs are connected together through a connecting portion. The coil springs and the connecting portion are formed of a single wire.

A pulley with a built-in one-way clutch, the type of which has sprags tilting in a direction to wedge between inner and outer rings while being guided on respective riding lands of a cage by pressing of respective leaf springs, is mounted on an alternator shaft of an alternator to which torque of a crank shaft of a vehicle engine rotating together with slight variations in angular velocity is transmitted through a power transmission belt. In the mounting, a tilting force acting on a contact point at which each sprag contacts the corresponding riding land to tilt the sprag in the wedging direction is set larger than a frictional force between the sprag and the riding land acting on the contact point. According to this setting, the sprag can be tilted in the wedging direction regardless of the frictional force between the sprag and the riding land, thereby eliminating a locking failure within the high engine speed range.

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Shizuoka, Japan

Masakazu Domoto