Hitachi Metals, Ltd.

Shuuji Yamada

Masanori Hara

Kazuyuki Kurakake

Akira Mikami

Yoshitaka Ito

Naoki Maruyama

Akitoshi Nakamura

Makoto Ohuchi

Naoto Watanabe

The differential apparatus comprises (a) a casing rotated by a driving force from outside; (b) a pair of opposing disc plates coaxially disposed in the casing, an opposing surface of each disc plate being formed with a circumferentially continuous groove winding such that a radial position changes at a constant period; (c) a plurality of balls rolling in opposing winding continuous grooves of both disc plates; and (d) a ball holder rotating integrally with the casing and having a plurality of radially extending guide holes, each guide hole movably receiving each ball, wherein the winding continuous groove of each disc plate circumferentially continuously has first guide regions each extending from a radially outer position to a radially inner position of each disc plate and second guide regions each extending from a radially inner position to a radially outer position, inflected regions each connecting each first guide region and each second guide region being larger in width and/or depth than the first guide regions and the second guide regions, whereby a contact stress between the balls and the winding continuous groove is decreased in the inflected regions.

Differential device and method of manufacturing the device

Growing community of inventors

Fukuoka-ken, Japan

Shuuji Yamada