The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Sep. 06, 1988
Filed:
Jun. 23, 1987
Reece R Fuehrer, Danville, IN (US);
Harvey D Won, Carmel, IN (US);
General Motors Corporation, Detroit, MI (US);
Abstract
A vehicle retarder system has a hydraulic retarder and a slipping friction brake operating in concert to retard the forward motion of the vehicle. The hydraulic retarder is an output driven device which is operable to absorb increasing energy as the vehicle speed increases. The friction brake is normally a ratio control reaction brake for the lowest forward drive ratio of the vehicle transmission. The brake has an additional apply piston which is operable to slippingly engage the brake whenever the hydraulic retarder is operable and the vehicle transmission is not in the lowest forward ratio. The control system has a control valve which is operable to control the engagement pressure of the additional piston in a manner such that the friction braking effort is higher at low vehicle speeds. This compensates for the lower effectiveness of the output driven hydraulic retarder. The control system is also effective to control the operation of the hydraulic retarder, the main piston of the reaction brake, cooling flow to the brake and cooling flow from the retarder.