Subaru Corporation

Yuya Kuramoto

Tomoaki Sugiura

Shunsuke Fukamachi

Tadao Inoue

A gear unit to be mounted in a vehicle includes a housing for storing oil, a partition disposed inside the housing, and a helical gear. The partition defines first and second oil chambers and has a through-hole allowing the first oil chamber to communicate with the second oil chamber. The helical gear disposed inside the first oil chamber rotates during running of the vehicle and has an angled tooth that draws inner and addendum circles defining a virtual circumferential plane. The through-hole coincides with a portion of the virtual circumferential plane in a direction parallel to a central axis of the helical gear. When the helical gear rotates in conjunction with the running of the vehicle, the oil flows from the second oil chamber into the first oil chamber so that an oil level of the first oil chamber becomes higher than that of the second oil chamber.

Gear unit

A bearing structure includes a shaft member coupled to a motor, two bearings on the shaft member with a distance therebetween in an axial direction, and a housing rotatable relative to the shaft member by means of the bearings, and an electrically-conductive seal member provided between the shaft member and the housing and abutting on the shaft member and the housing. The bearings include inner and outer rings fitted to an outer peripheral surface of the shaft member and an inner peripheral surface of the housing, respectively. The shaft member, housing, and seal member constitute an oil passage. At least one of an abutment portion where the seal member abuts on the shaft member or an abutment portion where the seal member abuts on the housing has a guide groove that guides oil entering the abutment portion from the oil passage to an external space of the oil passage.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Yuya Kuramoto