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:
Mar. 23, 1993
Filed:
Dec. 09, 1991
Christian H Thoma, St. Clement, GB;
George D Arnold, St. Helier, GB;
Unipat AG, Glarus, CH;
Abstract
A friction drive unit for use within a transaxle driving assembly in self-propelled vehicles such as grass-mowing lawn tractors, the transaxle comprising a two-piece housing structure forming a number of internal chambers for the encapsulation of the friction drive unit, associated reduction gearing and a mechanical differential. The friction drive may comprise as input members, a pair of driver wheels operatable against a larger driven disc wheel acting as the output member, such that only one driver wheel can be engaged to the driven wheel at any one time, and where the direction of vehicle motion depends on which one of the two driver wheels is in contact with the driven wheel. Each of the driver wheels is subjected to continuous rotation from an input drive shaft and are operatively displaced along the shaft by means of respective sliding yoke means. The output from the driven wheel is connected to the transaxle output shafts by means of high ratio gear reduction means.