Gm Global Technolgoy Operations, Inc.

Walter Eric Palmer

Carl A Lentz

James C Polak

Charles A Barker

Robert H Schaefer

Harry Fackenthal

A system for controlling the level of hydraulic fluid between a first and second sump in a transmission includes a valve assembly located within the first sump. The valve assembly includes a valve that is moveable between two positions. The valve assembly includes first and second inlet ports that communicate with the first sump and an outlet port that communicates with the second sump. The second inlet port has an opening that is located higher than an opening to the first inlet port. Hydraulic fluid within the first sump communicates through the first inlet port to the outlet port when the valve is in the first position, and hydraulic fluid within the first sump communicates through the second inlet port to the outlet port when the valve is in the second position.

System for controlling fluid level in a sump

An apply system for clutches employing electro-rheological fluid to transmit torque between two sets of interleaved plates. The plates are disposed within a stationary housing. The first set of plates is fixed to the stationary housing. The second set of plates is fixed to a shaft rotatable relative to the housing. A piston is coaxially disposed against the plates at one end of the interleaved plates. A piston apply chamber is located in the stationary housing on the opposite side of the piston. The electro-rheological fluid is circulated through the system by a pump, passing by the apply side of the piston, then between the plates, and then back to the pump. When there is a voltage potential between the plates, the flow between the plates is restricted and the pressure of the fluid on the piston builds, displacing the piston toward the plates. The plates are moved closer together by the piston. Contact between the plates is prevented by insulating elements mounted to alternate surfaces of the plates.

Electro-rheological clutch apply system

A retarder and friction brake system having vehicle service brakes and a shaft brake unit having a hydrodynamic retarder and friction brake. Manual brake controls provide for initial brake apply of the brake unit and then apply of the service brakes or independent apply of the service brakes. The brake unit has a dual chamber, hydrodynamic retarder with opposed bladed stators and a central rotor member having opposed bladed rotors mounted between the stator members for limited axial movement and rotation with a drum fixed to the shaft, and a friction brake having plates located concentrically within the retarder chambers on opposite sides of the rotor and splined to the drum and stators and a brake apply motor. In response to brake demand, the brake controls provide air pressure proportional to brake demand to the brake apply motor and fluid pressure proportional to brake demand and, in a low speed range limited to lower values with decreasing speed, to a brake chamber to provide a release pressure on the brake apply motor and flow through the constant restriction cooling passages in the brake plates to the retarder chambers for retarder braking and pumping through a cooler to provide with increasing speed in the low speed range, decreasing friction braking and increasing retarder braking having a total value proportional to brake demand, and in the higher speed range low friction braking and high retarder braking having a total value proportional to brake demand and increasing in a substantially straight line with increasing speed.

Retarder and friction brakes

An internal-external gear pump wherein the fluid displacement thereof is variable. The internal gear is rotatably driven by a drive shaft about a fixed axis and the external gear is rotatably driven by the internal gear about a controlled movable axis eccentric to the fixed axis. Movement of the external gear axis causes the eccentricity between the internal and external gear axes to vary, thereby resulting in a change in the depth of gear tooth mesh such that the volume of fluid displaced by the meshing teeth is varied. The position of the external gear axis is established by a control ring which rotatably supports the external gear, and is mounted in a stationary housing so as to be rotatably positionable within arcuate limits about a fixed axis eccentric to both the axes of the internal and external gears.

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Indianapolis, IN, United States of America

Walter Eric Palmer