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:
Jul. 21, 1998
Filed:
Aug. 29, 1996
Erlen B Walton, Farmington, MI (US);
James R DeBrabander, Marshall, MI (US);
David P Godlew, Beverly Hills, MI (US);
Eaton Corporation, Cleveland, OH (US);
Abstract
A fan drive assembly includes a viscous coupling device (11), a radiator cooling fan (F), and a speed increasing mechanism (13), so that, at relatively low engine speeds, the fan (F) is driven at a speed ('overdrive') greater than the input speed to the coupling device (11), and at relatively higher engine speeds, the input torque is transmitted through the viscous coupling in the normal manner. In the subject embodiment, the speed increasing mechanism (13) is a planetary gear set, in which torque is transmitted from the input shaft (21) to the planet carrier (47), and in the overdrive condition, the sun gear (53) is grounded. The output of the planetary is the ring gear (59), which directly drives a housing (61) attached to both the housing (17) of the viscous coupling, as well as the cooling fan (F), thus effectively bypassing the viscous clutching action.