Tsubakimoto Chain Company

Tsubakimoto Chainco.

Subakimoto Chain Co.

Yuji Kurematsu

Osamu Yoshida

Kaori Mori

Munehiro Maeda

Masanori Watanabe

Masahiko Konno

Yudai Takagi

Yuichiro Ishikawa

Akira Ishii

Eiichi Nakagawa

Tsubasa Sugiya

Atsushi Hayami

Takeshi Ogawa

Hirokazu Tsuneda

Tsuyoshi Kabai

Kazuyuki Ebinuma

Akihiro Fukuda

Yasuyuki Takagi

Yoshitaka Iwasaki

Hiroshi Hashimoto

Shunji Sakura

Yohei Nakata

Akira Hirai

Katsuya Nakakubo

Toyonaga Saitoh

Kohei Kunimatsu

Masanori Yokoyama

Toshitaka Ogo

Manabu Hirayama

Akira Morita

Akira Kobara

Masahiko Yamauchi

Nobuyuki Onoda

Takahiro Kadono

Hiroyuki Kamihigashi

Katsuji Shigematsu

Toshihiko Komiyama

Kenji Mitsuhashi

Toshiji Aota

Yuki Mizuno

A plurality of rollers are disposed between an inner race and an outer race that are coaxial and relatively rotatable. The inner race and outer race are configured to engage with each other via part or all of the plurality of rollers that are held in a circumferential direction between roller support parts and pocket parts, the roller support parts being formed on one of an outer circumferential surface of the inner race and an inner circumferential surface of the outer race, and the pocket parts being formed on the other. A torque limiting member that applies a radial load on the rollers to press the rollers against the roller support parts is provided coaxially with the inner race and the outer race. The torque limiting member is flat and annular in an axial direction and resiliently deformable in a radial direction.

Positive clutch

Providing a cam clutch that has a torque limiter function adaptable to high torque with a simple structure, excellent accuracy, stability, and durability, and can be downsized and have an increased service life. The cam clutch includes: a plurality of cams disposed in a circumferential direction between at least one pair of an inner ring and an outer ring that are coaxial with each other and rotatable relative to each other; and biasing means for biasing the plurality of cams so as to come into contact with the inner ring and the outer ring. Each of the cams includes an inclination restricting portion that restricts inclination of the cam in an engaging direction by coming into contact with a locking portion that is provided in a portion of the cam clutch other than cam receiving surfaces of the inner ring and the outer ring.

Cam clutch

A selectable clutch with a selector is provided, in which support grooves are formed to one of an inner race and an outer race, while pocket parts are formed to the other. A resilient member is provided to bias rollers disposed between the inner race and outer race toward the pocket parts. A roller-holding surface of the support groove and a roller-holding surface of the pocket part are formed with an inclination angle such that, when the rollers are held therebetween, a force acts on the rollers in a direction to move the rollers toward the pocket parts. In the lock mode, the rollers are each held by the support groove, pocket part, and selector.

Selectable clutch

An object of the invention is to provide a positive clutch that has a high rigidity and simple structure, and offers potential to allow easy adjustment of torque limit load, suppress friction loss and noise generation, realize a size reduction, and extend the service life. This positive clutch is configured to prohibit relative rotation of an outer and inner races by circumferentially holding each of a plurality of rollers between an outer race slope portion and an inner race slope portion. The clutch includes a torque limiter mechanism, which includes a piston member having a flat portion that forms the outer or inner race slope portion, and a resilient member that applies a constant load on the piston member. The piston member is slidably accommodated in a piston member accommodating hole formed in the outer race or the inner race.

An object of the present invention is to provide a positive clutch that has a high rigidity and simple structure, reduces friction loss, prevents noise generation, allows a size reduction, and helps extend a service life. The object is achieved by the following configuration: Roller support parts are formed on one of an outer circumferential surface of the inner race and an inner circumferential surface of the outer race, and pocket parts are formed on the other one of the inner race and outer race. The clutch is configured to stop relative rotation of the inner race and outer race by holding the rollers, which are disposed between the inner race and the outer race, between the roller support parts and pocket parts in the circumferential direction.

To provide a cam clutch unit that is easy to handle before assembly, with its components prevented from lifting or detachment, and that allows production with fewer machining steps and a lower level of difficulty, while also enabling unit thickness reduction. The cam clutch unit of the present invention includes: a plurality of cams arranged between an inner race and an outer race; a cage ring having a plurality of pocket portions that restrict relative circumferential movements of the cams; and an annular spring that biases the cams. The cams have an engagement step adapted to engage with the spring on one axial end face. The cage ring has a plurality of hook portions that restrict an axial movement of the annular spring. The hook portions have a pressing part that allows the spring to press the cams towards the other axial end.

Cam clutch unit

To provide a simple-structured cam clutch that does not require precise control and is operable with a smaller drive force and less prone to damage on cam surfaces or inner and outer raceways. The cam clutch includes a plurality of cams circumferentially arranged between an inner race and an outer race and supported by a cage member, and a selector capable of changing an orientation of the cams. The selector includes a driven part allowing a rotation angle thereof to be controlled relative to the inner race or outer race to which the cage member is fixedly attached, and a selector body circumferentially displaceable relative to the driven part in a resilient manner by a spring-loaded mechanism. The selector body includes a cam orientation control protrusion capable of changing the orientation of the cams by making contact with the cams.

To provide a simple-structured cam clutch that does not require precise control, uses a smaller drive force, provides improved clutch operation stability and high responsiveness, and offers more mode switch options. The cam clutch includes a plurality of cams circumferentially arranged between an inner race and an outer race. The cams are arranged in a plurality of rows adjacent each other in a direction of rotation axis. The cam clutch has a selector that allows a rotation angle thereof to be controlled relative to the inner race or the outer race. The selector has a cam orientation control surface capable of changing the orientation of at least one row of cams by making contact with a cam surface. The cam orientation control surface includes a cam release portion radially protruded toward the cams more than a cam actuator portion and moving the cams to a non-operating orientation.

To provide a cam clutch unit that reduces the number of machining steps and level of difficulty of cam clutch production and reduces rotation resistance caused by rollers. The cam clutch unit includes: a plurality of cams and a plurality of rollers circumferentially arranged between an inner race and an outer race that are coaxial and rotatable relative to each other; a cage ring having a plurality of pocket portions that restrict circumferential relative movements of the cams and the rollers; and an annular spring that biases the cams. The cams each have, on one axial end face, an engagement step that can engage with the spring. The cage ring has a plurality of hook portions that restrict axial movements of the annular spring.

To provide a simple-structured cam clutch that does not require precise control, uses a smaller drive force for forcibly changing cam postures, and provides improved clutch operation stability and high responsiveness. The cam clutch includes a plurality of cams circumferentially arranged between an inner race and an outer race and supported by a cage member, and a selector allowing a rotation angle thereof to be controlled relatively to the inner race or the outer race to which the cage member is fixed. The selector has a cam posture control surface in contact with cam surfaces of the cams and capable of causing the cams to change posture thereof. The cam posture control surface includes a cam release portion radially protruded toward the cams more than a cam actuator portion and causing the cams to change posture thereof to a non-operating posture.

To provide a simple-structured chain drive mechanism that can reduce the noise generated when the chain sits on the sprocket, prevent deterioration of power transmission efficiency, and retard the progress of wear on the sprocket or chain. The chain drive mechanism includes a sprocket having a plurality of teeth, and a chain having a plurality of link plates and configured to be put around the sprocket. The sprocket includes a pair of flanges protruding circumferentially around the sprocket such as to sandwich the plurality of teeth from sides. The chain includes a pair of seat portions on both sides of the chain so that the flanges abut on the seat portions from a circumferential direction of the sprocket when the chain sits.

Chain drive mechanism

To provide a sprocket that reduces the influence of tension fluctuations concurrent with load torque variations to suppress noise and vibration, and that prevents an increase in tension fluctuations, noise, and vibration even when the chain tension is low and the load torque is small, and in regions where engagement between the chain and sprocket is free of the influence of tension. The sprocket has a plurality of seating points for the chain when the chain sits under no load set between adjacent pairs of the teeth such that their radial positions change in a circumferentially continuous manner. The radial positions of the seating points under no load have a variation pattern in which the radial positions increase and decrease depending on circumferential positions of the seating points.

Sprocket and drive mechanism

To provide a simple-structured chain guide with improved durability and capable of preventing detachment or breakage of a supplementary member and of reliably reducing vibration and noise. The chain guide includes a supplementary member made of a different material from a guide body. The supplementary member is configured to have an engaging hole, which allows attachment of the supplementary member to a side face of a support wall part provided between a guide part and a base part of the guide body.

Chain guide

To provide a sprocket that reduces the influence of tension fluctuations concurrent with load torque changes to suppress noise and vibration and that allows for a weight reduction while retaining high strength as well as enables high productivity, and a drive mechanism that uses this sprocket. Sprocket teeth are configured by providing a cushioning layer on tooth faces of tooth portions of a sprocket base body made of a high-rigidity material. The sprocket teeth include the cushioning layer that varies in thickness.

To provide a tensioner that can keep the oil pressure in an oil pressure chamber stable and consistently generate suitable reaction force and damping force to impact loads to reduce looseness in the chain and noise. A piston is set such as to partition an inner space of a plunger into an adjustment space on the front side and the oil pressure chamber on the rear side, a piston restricting member restricting the movement of the piston toward the adjustment space. An oil relief mechanism is configured to cause the piston to move forward when oil pressure in the oil pressure chamber rises so as to discharge oil inside the oil pressure chamber to the outside. The piston restricting member has an orifice function that can control the amount of discharged oil.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Yuji Kurematsu