Dyneer Corporation

Aspro, Incorporated

Nolte V Sproul

Michael F Kark

A belt tensioning device for an endless drive belt for a vehicle accessories drive system. A sheet metal bracket is adapted to be mounted on an engine in a stationary position adjacent the drive belt and has a lever plate pivotally mounted thereon. An idler pulley is rotatably mounted on the lever plate and is movable into belt tensioning engagement by coil springs mounted on the bracket and engaged with the lever plate. A pair of pockets is formed in the bracket, each of which has an inclined surface which extends upwardly toward the lever plate. A camming block formed of a friction material is movably mounted in each pocket. Each block has an angled surface which is slidably engaged with the inclined surface of the pocket and has a planar coupling surface which frictionally engages the lever plate. The friction blocks provide a damping force on the lever plate when the lever plate attempts to move in the non-belt tensioning direction. Coil springs are mounted in the pockets and exert a biasing force against the camming blocks to move the blocks along the inclined surfaces of the pockets and into engagement with the lever plate. The springs maintain a predetermined coupling force between the blocks and lever plate throughout the life of the camming blocks and drive belt.

Belt tensioner construction

A belt tensioning device for an endless drive belt for a vehicle accessories drive system. A bracket, which terminates in a pair of outwardly extending end flanges, is adapted to be mounted on a vehicle engine adjacent the drive belt. A cylindrical cup-shaped housing is mounted on each of the bracket flanges and contains a pair of volute springs. A plunger is operatively engaged by each of the volute spring pairs and is biased outwardly from an open end of the housing toward the oppositely mounted spring housing. The axes of the plungers are parallel to each other and spaced apart. A lever is pivotally mounted on the bracket intermediate the spring housings and extends from the bracket perpendicularly with respect to the axes of the plungers. The plungers are connected to the lever, one on each side of the lever pivot point. An idler pulley is rotatably mounted on the extended end of the lever and is moved in a belt tensioning direction for engagement with the drive belt by the biasing actions of the volute springs. The volute springs provide and maintain a generally constant tensioning force on the drive belt, and also provide a damping effect due to the unequal load rate deflection of each spring coil and due to the sliding friction between the individual spring coils.

A belt tensioning device for an endless drive belt for a vehicle accessories drive system. A sheet metal bracket is adapted to be mounted on an engine adjacent the drive belt and has a lever plate pivotally mounted thereon. An idler pulley is rotatably mounted on the lever plate and is adapted to be moved in a belt tensioning direction for engagement with the drive belt. A coil spring is mounted on the bracket and is engaged with the lever plate biasing the lever plate and pulley in the belt tensioning direction. A series of ratchet teeth is provided in the lever plate and is engaged by a detent which is mounted on the bracket and formed of a strip of spring steel. The spring steel detent-ratchet teeth engagement retards movement of the lever plate in a direction opposite to belt tensioning direction. Also the detent will bow outwardly due to the resiliency thereof while retarding the reverse movement of the lever plate to provide a damping effect on the belt engaging pulley. Alternately a pad of friction material may be mounted on the end of the leaf spring detent and frictionally engage the lever plate to provide the damping effect replacing the series of ratchet teeth.

A hydraulic tensioning device for maintaining a predetermined amount of tensioning force on an endless drive belt for the vehicle accessories drive system. A hydraulic cylinder is adapted to be mounted in a fixed position with respect to the vehicle engine and is operatively connected to the hydraulic fluid system of the engine. A bellcrank mechanism is pivotally mounted on the cylinder and has a belt-engaging idler pulley rotatably mounted on an extended end of one of the levers. The other lever is operatively engaged by the cylinder piston which pivots the idler pulley into tensioning engagement with the drive belt. A check valve is provided in the incoming hydraulic fluid passage of the cylinder and keeps that portion of the cylinder chamber which is located behind the piston filled with hydraulic fluid to maintain a constant predetermined tensioning force on the belt whether the engine is running or stopped, and to provide a shock-absorbing damping action for the idler pulley. The cylinder is connected to the power steering pump of the vehicle to provide a relatively high pressure to the cylinder for activation of the piston.

Hydraulic belt tensioner construction

A one-piece sintered pulley hub construction formed of powder metal is provided with a pair of radially outwardly extending hub pulling flanges. The hub has a generally tubular-shaped body with front and rear end faces and a cylindrical bore extending axially therebetween. The pulling flanges are formed integrally with the tubular body and extend radially outwardly from adjacent the front end of the tubular body in diametrically opposite directions, with the front surfaces of the flanges preferably lying in the same plane with the front end face of the tubular body. The flanges provide lugs for gripping by a hub pulling device and they enable the hub to be formed in one piece by a powder metal sintering process eliminating costly machining procedures.

One-piece sintered pulley hub construction

A one-piece tubular walled spun sheet metal pulley having a V-shaped pulley groove formed by a single V-groove wall and a partial double fold V-groove wall. An integral tubular pulley mounting flange wall extends axially from the double flange wall located intermediate the crests and valley of the V-groove forming walls in cross section. The tubular spun sheet metal V-grooved pulley product is made by drawing from a sheet blank a cup-shaped stage blank having a bottom wall, and a primary cylindrical flange wall connected by an offsetting shoulder with an enlarged secondary cylindrical flange wall terminating in an open end; then knocking out the bottom wall of the cup-shaped stage blank to form a tubular stage blank having offset primary and secondary cylindrical flange walls; and then spinning a V-shaped pulley groove in the secondary flange wall of the tubular blank which groove in cross section has a single V-groove wall and a partial double fold V-groove wall connected with the primary cylindrical flange wall intermediate the crests and valley of the V-groove forming walls. The apparatus for spinning a V-groove in the hubless offset cylindrical stage blank includes means for supporting the stage blank on its open ends at spaced locations on relatively axially movable headstock and tailstock die means assemblies; means for internally and externally telescopically supporting a stage blank primary cylindrical flange wall in tailstock die means during relative axial movement between the headstock and tailstock die means and while spinning a V-groove in the enlarged stage blank secondary cylindrical flange wall; and internally supporting the pulley V-groove walls on headstock and tailstock die means as the V-groove is being spun.

Method and apparatus for making hubless V-grooved pulley and product

A noise-dampened V-grooved sheet metal pulley having one or more adjacent annular V-grooves formed in a wall of a cup-shaped blank. The pulley has tensioned dampening means engaged against or laminated with at least one V-groove wall of the pulley. The dampening means may be a circular metal or plastic material washer trapped and locked during spinning of the pulley between fold layers of a double flange fold of a pulley V-groove wall. The dampening means also may be a thin-walled metal or plastic tubular member conforming to and tensioned during spinning against the inside surface of one or more pulley V-grooves, which provides a laminated groove wall structure. The dampening means also may be a ring-like member, generally L-shaped in cross section, fixed to one portion of the pulley and tensioned against the inside surface of at least one pulley V-groove wall. The dampening means also may comprise air or heat-cured plastic means on an inner pulley wall surface that is trapped and locked during spinning between fold layers of a double flange fold of a pulley V-groove wall. Both multiple and single groove pulleys are provided with dampening means which alter the vibration frequency of the pulleys, resulting in a reduced pulley noise level during pulley operation.

Noise-dampened pulley construction

A one-piece cup-shaped metal poly-V pulley has an annular flange formed with a series of relatively narrow, deep, V-shaped grooves which have thickened groove valley walls adjacent the open end of the flange, and the annular flange terminates in an outturned radial stiffening flange. The series of poly-V pulley grooves is adapted to engage a Poly-V Belt in a Serpentine drive or conventional Poly-V drive train. The poly-V pulley is made by forming a cup-shaped blank with a generally cylindrical annular flange which terminates at its open end in an outturned radial flange. A series of wide opening, shallow, corrugation-like V-shaped grooves then is cold rolled in the cylindrical flange by outwardly and inwardly displacing portions of the flange wall to form rounded groove valleys with intervening rounded crests, and slightly thinning the flange wall metal in the crests and valleys while presenting appreciable groove side wall thinning. The groove walls then are axially squeezed to compress the walls to sinuous shape while maintaining constant the radial dimensions of the inner and outer rounded surfaces of the grooves during axial squeezing. The sinuous formed flange wall then is roller worked, compressed and extruded to form sharp V-shaped outer groove crests and thickened metal in the groove valley walls.

Growing community of inventors

Canton, OH, United States of America

Nolte V Sproul