Ntn Corporation

Toyota Boshoku Kabushiki Kaisha

Shiroki Corporation

Yasumasa Hibi

Takahide Saito

Kyohei Sasanuma

Kunihiro Mikasa

Katsufumi Abe

Masahiro Kawai

Eiji Maeno

Nobumasa Higashi

Yumiko Mineno

Hideki Akamatsu

Kouji Isoda

Takashi Hattori

Kengo Watanabe

Shaoluan Bian

A clutch unit includes an operation lever, an operation member, an input-side clutch, an output-side clutch, and a bottomed cylindrical housing. The input-side clutch includes an input-side inner ring member and an operation bracket. The operation bracket includes an engagement portion that engages with the input-side inner ring member, a facing portion that faces the bottom surface of the housing with a gap therebetween, a fastened portion that penetrates a through hole formed in the bottom surface of the housing and is fastened to the operation member, and a sliding-contact portion that extends from the facing portion toward the bottom surface of the housing and comes into sliding-contact with the bottom surface of the housing.

Clutch unit

Provided is a clutch unit in which an output-side outer ring member is attached to a base plate without welding. A clutch unit () includes an output-side clutch () and a housing () that accommodates the output-side clutch (). The output-side clutch () includes an output-side outer ring member (). The output-side outer ring member () and the housing () have an engagement protrusion () and an engagement groove () that engage with each other to restrict relative rotation therebetween.

A brake-side clutch part includes an outer ring whose rotation is restricted and an output shaft from which rotation is output. The outer ring is provided with a slide gear that meshes with the output shaft when rotational torque is cut off and releases a meshing state with the output shaft when rotational torque is transmitted. The output shaft is provided with an inner gear that meshes with the slide gear so as to be slightly rotatable. An alignment part that aligns a phase of the inner gear with that of the slide gear when rotational torque is cut off, and a centering part that returns the inner gear to a neutral position with respect to the output shaft when rotational torque is transmitted are provided between the inner gear and the output shaft.

A clutch unit includes a lever-side clutch section provided on an input side, for controlling rotational torque to be input through lever operation, and a brake-side clutch section provided on an output side, for transmitting the rotational torque from the lever-side clutch section to the output side, and interrupting rotational torque to be reversely input from the output side. The brake-side clutch section has a two-layer structure, in which two one-way clutches are arranged side by side in an axial direction. The first one-way clutch interrupts rotational torque in a forward direction, which is reversely input from the output side, through meshing of serrated projection and depression portions, whereas the second one-way clutch interrupts rotational torque in a backward direction, which is reversely input from the output side, through meshing of serrated projection and depression portions arranged in an opposite direction.

A stator unit for a torque converter includes a stator, a one-way clutch mounted radially inside the stator, and thrust bearings provided on both axial sides of the one-way clutch. The one-way clutch includes an outer ring having a peripheral wall and side walls extending radially inwardly from the respective side edges of the peripheral wall and each having a flange formed at the radially inner edge thereof, an inner ring which is in sliding contact with the flanges, and sprags disposed between the inner surface of the peripheral wall and the outer surface of the inner ring. Each of the thrust bearings has a stake which is pressed into one of engaging steps formed in the radially inner surface of the stator until the bearing ring of the thrust bearing is pressed against one of the side walls and one of axial end surfaces of the inner ring, thereby retaining the component parts so as to be inseparable from the stator.

Growing community of inventors

Shizuoka, Japan

Yasumasa Hibi