CN108352796B

CN108352796B - Electronic clutch and electric tool

Info

Publication number: CN108352796B
Application number: CN201780003794.9A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 刘佰祥; 陈艳华; 周述宇
Original assignee: Shenzhen H&T Intelligent Control Co Ltd
Current assignee: Shenzhen H&T Intelligent Control Co Ltd
Priority date: 2017-06-30
Filing date: 2017-06-30
Publication date: 2022-04-01
Anticipated expiration: 2037-06-30
Also published as: CN108352796A; WO2019000379A1

Abstract

The invention provides an electronic clutch and an electric tool. The electronic clutch comprises a clutch main body and a clutch driving device, wherein the clutch driving device is used for driving the clutch main body to be connected or disconnected according to a control command; an input device for collecting at least one user instruction; the controller is respectively connected with the clutch driving device and the input equipment and is configured with preset control logic; the controller is used for receiving a user instruction from the input equipment and outputting a corresponding control instruction to the clutch driving device according to the control logic. The electronic clutch does not need to be confirmed before operation or manually adjusted, can more conveniently, simply and flexibly realize the function of the clutch, change or configure the working mode of the electric tool, and improve the working efficiency of operation.

Description

Electronic clutch and electric tool

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of electric tools, in particular to an electronic clutch and an electric tool.

Background

The electric tools which can be selected at present on the market are various, and the types and the functions of the electric tools are very rich. With the continuous development of social economy, the electric tool with only a single function is difficult to meet the daily use requirement of people. Therefore, in order to facilitate the use of people, electric tools with various different functions and switchable different working modes, for example, electric tools of multifunctional percussion drills, have the functions of an ordinary electric drill (flat drill) and a hammer drill (combined action of hammering and flat drill). Or some multifunctional electric hammer electric tools have the electric drill function (flat drill) and can also switch the working mode to be used as an electric hammer drill or an electric pick.

For the electric tool with the switchable working mode, the working mode of the electric tool is generally required to be configured or functionally switched in the using process, so that the working mode is more pertinently met with the operation requirement. The switching of the operating mode is effected in the mechanical transmission part by means of a clutch device, by means of which the function of the power tool requiring work can be selected.

The switching of the above functions or operation modes is usually selected or configured by a rotary switch mounted on the outside of the housing of the power tool. The manual rotation of the rotary switch drives the clutch in the electric tool to slide on the transmission shaft, so as to adjust the engagement (or engagement) and disengagement relationship between the gears and the transmission shaft of various functional transmissions, thereby achieving the functional switching of the operation mode of the electric tool and further realizing the operation requirement of the electric tool.

In implementing the present invention, the applicant has found that the following problems exist in the prior art: at present, the function switching of the electric tool needs to manually control the clutch state of the clutch through a rotary switch. Therefore, before using the power tool each time, the user needs to first select and confirm whether the current working mode of the power tool is correct, and whether the indication on the rotary switch corresponds to the working mode identification position of the power tool, which is tedious and inconvenient to use.

In addition, if the operation mode of the electric tool is incorrect or the clutch of the electric tool is not in place (such as in a half-clutch state), the clutch is easily damaged during operation, and the service life of the electric tool is affected.

On the other hand, if the mode of operation of the electric power tool is to be switched during operation, the user needs to stop the operation, control the rotary switch to select the function of the electric power tool, and then continue to start the electric power tool to perform the operation. In some occasions where the work switching operation mode of the electric tool needs to be frequently switched, great inconvenience is caused to the use of the electric tool, and the work efficiency is affected.

In addition, the operation state of the mechanical clutch device is not fed back to the main controller of the electric tool control system, and the main controller cannot know the operation state of the clutch device, which may reduce the reliability and safety of the product.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention mainly solves the technical problems that: the problems that the mechanical clutch easily causes damage to the electric tool, reliability reduction and inconvenient switching operation in the use process of the electric tool are solved.

To solve the above technical problems, an embodiment of the present invention provides an electronic clutch. The electronic clutch includes: the clutch comprises a clutch main body, a clutch driving device, an input device and a controller.

The clutch driving device is used for driving the clutch main body to be connected or disconnected according to a control command; the input device is used for acquiring at least one user instruction; the controller is respectively connected with the clutch driving device and the input equipment and is configured with preset control logic; the controller is used for receiving a user instruction from the input equipment and outputting a corresponding control instruction to the clutch driving device according to the control logic.

Optionally, the clutch drive device comprises: an electromagnet and a drive circuit thereof;

the driving circuit is used for receiving the control instruction and controlling the movement of the electromagnet.

Optionally, the electromagnet comprises two-phase coil windings arranged oppositely; when one phase coil winding is switched on and the other phase coil winding is switched off, the electromagnet is used for driving the clutch main body to move along the direction corresponding to the switched-on coil winding;

the driving circuit is used for receiving the control instruction, and controlling the movement of the electromagnet comprises the following steps: and the driving circuit is used for receiving the control instruction and controlling one phase of coil winding in the two phase of coil windings to be switched on according to the control instruction.

Optionally, the driving circuit specifically includes: a working power supply, a pair of switching elements, and a pair of freewheeling diodes; the working power supply is connected with the coil winding, and the coil winding is grounded through the switching element;

the switch element is provided with an input port for receiving a control signal, and the working state of the switch element is determined according to the control signal, wherein the working state comprises on or off; the freewheeling diode is reversely connected in parallel to two ends of the coil winding to form a conduction loop of reverse electromotive force.

Optionally, the switching element is a power transistor or a MOS transistor.

Optionally, the electromagnet is a self-retaining electromagnet.

In order to solve the above technical problem, an embodiment of the present invention further provides an electric tool. The electric tool includes: an electric motor that outputs power through a transmission shaft; a plurality of drive teeth; the transmission teeth correspond to the working modes of the electric tool one by one; and the electronic clutch is arranged corresponding to the transmission gear and controls the clutch state between the transmission shaft and the corresponding transmission gear.

Optionally, the power tool further comprises: and the display device is connected with the controller of the electric clutch and is used for displaying the current working mode of the electric tool.

Optionally, the display device is an LED indicator light; the LED indicator lamp has a plurality of flashing modes, and the flashing modes correspond to the working modes of the current electric tool.

Optionally, the power tool further comprises: a communication module; the communication module is connected with a controller of the electronic clutch, and is used for receiving one or more control instructions and transmitting the control instructions to the controller.

In the control method of the embodiment of the invention, an electronic control mode is adopted to replace the traditional mechanical clutch, and the clutch is driven to realize the switching of different functional modes of the electric tool. The electronic control mode does not need to confirm before operation or manually adjust the clutch, so that the function of the clutch can be realized more conveniently, simply and flexibly, the working mode of the electric tool can be changed or configured, and the working efficiency of the operation is improved.

Drawings

One or more embodiments are illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, which correspond to the figures in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and which are not to scale unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 1 is a schematic control structure diagram of an electric tool according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating an operation mode switching sequence of the power tool according to the embodiment of the invention;

fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a clutch driving device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

fig. 4 is a schematic view of a connection structure of a transmission shaft of an electric tool according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more apparent, the present invention is described in further detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are merely illustrative of the invention and are not intended to limit the invention.

The electric tool is a widely used working tool, and has a housing made of engineering plastics, aluminum or other materials, one end of the housing is fixedly or detachably connected with a corresponding tool, and a motor of a suitable type is arranged in the housing as a power source. The motor outputs power through the transmission system, so that the tool is driven to perform various operations, such as drilling, hammering, screwing and the like.

In order to meet different requirements of use, electric tools may have a plurality of different functions or operating modes, for example, a flat drilling function, a hammering function, and a combination of flat drilling and hammering.

Generally, the electric tool can realize the switching of the different functions through a transmission system consisting of one or more clutches. For example, as shown in fig. 1, a motor of an electric power tool is used as a power source to output power to a drive shaft. The clutch slides on the transmission shaft, and the meshing (or meshing)/disengaging relationship between transmission gears with different functions and the transmission shaft is adjusted, so that power is output or distributed to different gears, the functional switching of the operation modes of the electric tool is completed, and different operation requirements are met.

According to the actual requirements, the electric tool can also add or reduce some functional modules, for example, to facilitate movement, reduce the limitation in use, add batteries, and is not limited to the functional modules. In some embodiments, the clutch can be driven more conveniently by using a proper clutch driving method, so that the operation required when the operation mode of the electric tool is switched is simplified, and the working efficiency is improved.

Fig. 1 is a schematic control structure diagram of a switchable mode power tool according to an embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the clutch is driven in an electronically controlled manner, and the engagement/disengagement (clutching) relationship between the various gears and the drive shaft is changed or adjusted.

As shown in fig. 1, the electric power tool includes: controller 100, motor 200, clutch drive 300, and power source 400.

The controller 100, as a main control unit of the electric tool, integrates one or more functional modules, calls corresponding functional programs, and executes one or more steps to implement different functions and switching operations between the different functions of the electric tool.

The controller 100 may be any suitable type of processor with certain logic operation capability, such as a single chip, a microprocessor, or a CPU. The processor may also have one or more processing cores.

The motor 200 may be connected to the controller 100 through a motor driving circuit 201, and the controller 100 may drive a specific operation mode of the motor 200, for example, a rotation speed or a rotation direction of the motor 200. The motor driving circuit 201 is specifically configured according to the specifically used motor 200, and is well known to those skilled in the art (for example, parameters such as voltage, current, etc. required for driving the motor 200). In some embodiments, the motor driving circuit 201 may also be integrated in the controller 100 as one of the functional modules of the controller 100.

The controller 100 may also provide a plurality of corresponding input/output interfaces according to the specific integrated functional modules, so as to implement control of other external devices or receive information collected by the external devices. For example, the controller 100 may be provided with a power interface 101 for connecting with a power source 400, and power supply of the power source 400 is obtained through the power interface 101.

In the present embodiment, the controller 100 is further provided with a clutch control output port 102 connected to the clutch driving device 300. According to the control command output from the port by the controller 100, the clutch driving device 300 can drive the clutch main body to perform corresponding connection or disconnection actions, thereby realizing the switching of the functions of the electric tool.

The clutch driving device 300 is a clutch driving device that is controlled using an electronic signal. Unlike mechanical control, it can control clutch actuation via electronic signals without manual intervention.

In the present embodiment, the clutch driving device 300 may be any suitable actuating mechanism, such as an electromagnet, a dc motor, a stepping motor, etc., capable of performing corresponding actions according to an electrical signal.

The control instruction output by the controller 100 corresponds to the use requirement of the user. In this embodiment, the user instruction used by the user to meet the use requirement may be collected by using the corresponding input device 501, such as a key, a touch button, a switch, and the like.

In the electric tool provided by the embodiment, a user can simply input information through the input device (such as a key) to complete the switching of different working modes (or functions) of the electric tool, the switching process is rapid and convenient, and a series of problems (such as alignment required by complicated operation or mode switching completion required after shutdown) when the original mechanical clutch is switched by using the rotary switch are avoided.

Optionally, the clutch is electronically controlled. Therefore, when more keys or other interactive devices are provided, the adjustment of the switching of the working mode of the power tool can be flexibly performed, for example, the control key 502 for configuring the switching mode is additionally provided.

Take a multifunctional electric hammer tool as an example: it is assumed that the electric hammer tool has a flat drill mode, a percussion drill mode, an electric hammer mode, and an electric pick mode. The switching sequence is shown in fig. 2 after each key press. In some application scenarios, however, the user may only need to use both the hammer mode and the pick mode.

In this way, the user can change or adjust the corresponding control logic in the controller 100 through the control button 502, so that when the user uses the input device 501 to switch the working modes, the switching sequence of the working modes is modified to be alternately switched between the hammer mode and the pick mode.

Compared with the conventional mode of driving the clutch by a mechanical mode, the mode for switching the functions can be freely set by a user according to the actual requirements of the user, so that the efficiency of operation is improved, and the function switching of the electric tool is completed more quickly. Moreover, the controller can know the current specific working mode of the electric tool, and the reliability and the safety of the product are improved. It should be noted that the configuration of the different control logic described above may be determined according to the actual controller used or the calculation method, and is well known to those skilled in the art.

In order to facilitate the switching of the working modes of the power tool by the user, in some embodiments, other applicable functional modules may be further added to the power tool. As shown in fig. 1, a display device 600 for displaying the current operation mode may be added. The display device 600 is connected to the display signal interface 103 provided by the controller 100 to show the current power tool operation mode to the user.

The display device 600 may be any suitable type, and has different display modes, such as a liquid crystal display, a digital display, a plurality of LED indicators, and the like, for indicating different operation modes. Specifically, the controller 100 may control the LED indicator corresponding to the current operating mode to flash or light, so as to show the current operating mode of the power tool to the user.

With reference to fig. 1, a communication module 700 for establishing a communication connection with the outside to transmit data or commands may be further added. The communication module 700 is connected to the controller 100 through a corresponding data transmission interface, and transmits an external control command or data to the controller 100.

The communication module 700 may be any suitable wireless or wired communication module capable of establishing a communication connection with one or more external smart devices, including but not limited to a Wi-Fi module, a bluetooth module, and an NFC communication module. Specifically, the external smart device may run a corresponding client software program (such as APP, a web page version client, etc.). The user can set the switching order of the operation modes of the electric tool (function as the control button 502), directly switch the operation modes of the electric tool (function as the button 501), or acquire the current operation state of the electric tool, etc. through the client software program.

In some embodiments of the present invention, some functional modules in the power tool may be further adjusted, integrated, or added/omitted according to other suitable functional requirements based on the computing capability of the controller 100 or the provided data interface.

Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a clutch driving device according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in fig. 3, the clutch driving device specifically includes: electromagnet and drive circuit 312. drive circuit 312 has input port 320 and operating power supply VCC.

The electromagnet is an electromagnet having two-phase coil windings, and includes a first coil winding 311a and a second coil winding 311 b. Alternatively, the electromagnet may be an electromagnet having a self-holding function (i.e., the electromagnet still maintains its original position after the operating power VCC is cut off). Therefore, the influence of the working power supply VCC on the electromagnet can be avoided, unnecessary misoperation is avoided, and the reliability of the clutch driving device and the reduction of the power consumption of the clutch driving device are facilitated.

Correspondingly, the driving circuit is composed of a pair of switching elements (the first switching element 312a and the second switching element 312b) and a pair of freewheel diodes (the first freewheel diode D1 and the second freewheel diode D2).

Alternatively, the free-wheeling diode may be selected from a suitable type of diode, such as a fast recovery diode or a schottky diode, to play a free-wheeling role in the driving circuit.

One end of the first coil winding 311a is connected to a working power source VCC, the other end is grounded through a first switch element 312a, a control end of the first switch element is used as a first input port 320a, and the working state (i.e., off/on) of the first switch element 312a can be controlled through the voltage of the first input port 320 a.

One end of the second coil winding 311b is also connected to the operating power supply VCC, the other end is grounded through the second switch element 312b, and a control end of the second switch element is used as the second input port 320b, so that the operating state (i.e., off/on) of the second switch element 312b can be controlled by the voltage of the second input port 320 b.

As shown in fig. 3, the first freewheeling diode D1 and the second freewheeling diode D2 are connected in anti-parallel with the first coil winding 311a and the second coil winding 311b, respectively, to form a conduction path of induced electromotive force, so as to prevent the first switching element and the second switching element from being damaged by the instantaneous high-voltage reverse induced electromotive force generated by the coil windings.

As described above, the first and

second coil windings

311a and 311b may be controlled to be turned on or off by inputting corresponding voltage signals to the first and

second input ports

320a and 320b, so as to control the operation of the relay, thereby further controlling the operation of the clutch.

For example, the first switching element may be controlled to be turned on and the second switching element may be controlled to be turned off to move the clutch in the first coil winding direction, so that the clutch disconnects the gear from the transmission shaft, or the second switching element may be controlled to be turned on and the first switching element may be controlled to be turned off to move the clutch in the second coil winding direction, so that the clutch engages the gear with the transmission shaft.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that in practical use, any suitable circuit structure or other suitable power device may be specifically used as the switching element, such as a power transistor or a MOS transistor. In this embodiment, as shown in fig. 3, the first switching element and the second switching element are power transistors.

In the embodiment of the invention, the electromagnet is used as the actuating mechanism to drive the clutch to be switched off or connected, so that a clutch driving mode of manually rotating the switch can be replaced, some defects of a mechanical clutch are avoided, and the control on the clutch can be conveniently and accurately realized. Moreover, the control mode can be realized by configuring and updating the control logic, the control is more flexible, and the method can be suitable for different application occasions.

The following describes in detail the operation process of switching the working modes of the electric tool, taking an electric hammer electric tool with three working modes as an example, with reference to the schematic structural diagram shown in fig. 4:

the electric hammer electric tool comprises a flat drilling mode, an electric hammer mode and an electric pick mode. In fig. 4, the first driving gear 301 is in an electric pick mode, the second driving gear 302 is in an electric hammer mode, and the third driving gear 303 is in a flat drilling mode.

In the initial state, the third transmission gear 303 is connected to the transmission shaft 304, and the second transmission gear 302 and the first transmission gear 301 are disconnected from the transmission shaft 304 (i.e., the default operation mode of the power tool is the flat drilling mode).

A first clutch 305 and a second clutch 306 are provided corresponding to the first transmission tooth 301 and the second transmission tooth 302, respectively, for controlling whether the first transmission tooth 301 and the second transmission tooth 302 are engaged with the transmission shaft 304.

Thus, when the first driving tooth 301 is engaged with the driving shaft 304 and the second driving tooth 302 is disengaged from the driving shaft 304, the electric hammer power tool is in the electric pick mode. When the second driving gear 302 is engaged with the driving shaft 304 and the first driving gear 301 is disengaged from the driving shaft 304, the electric hammer power tool is in the electric hammer mode.

The first clutch 305 and the second clutch 306 are controlled by a corresponding first latching electromagnet 307 and a second latching electromagnet 308, respectively. For example, when the first latching electromagnet 307 moves toward the a-phase coil, the first clutch 305 is driven to engage the first transmission tooth 301 with the transmission shaft 304, and when the first latching electromagnet 307 moves toward the B-phase coil, the first clutch 305 is driven to disengage the first transmission tooth 301 from the transmission shaft 304.

In the actual operation process, firstly, the electric hammer electric tool is powered on, and the system is reset. The electric hammer electric tool is in a flat drilling mode, and a corresponding flat drilling mode indicator lamp is turned on.

The controller then detects the presence of a particular control or configuration logic and establishes a connection with an external smart device via the communication module. If no connection needs to be established, it is detected whether the control button 502 needs to be configured with new control logic.

The controller preferably performs control according to a user-defined configuration logic (i.e., a switching sequence of the operation modes) input by a user. In the absence, preset default configuration logic is used.

And finally, starting the electric hammer electric tool for operation. During operation, the controller remains active for all incoming control commands.

Thus, when the hammer electric tool is in the horizontal drilling mode, the user can press the button 501 once, and after receiving the instruction, the controller controls the first latching electromagnet 307 and the second latching electromagnet 308 to move to the respective a-phase coil and B-phase coil, so as to switch the hammer electric tool to the hammer mode. And in the electric tool, an LED indicating lamp corresponding to the electric pick mode is lightened.

In other cases, the user can change the control logic stored in the controller through the control button 502 to adjust the switching sequence of the operation modes. After the adjustment is completed, after the user presses the key 501 once, the controller will control the first self-holding electromagnet 307 and the second self-holding electromagnet 308 to move to their respective B-phase coil and a-phase coil according to the instruction and the new control logic, so that the electric hammer power tool is switched to the electric hammer mode.

Of course, an external device that has a communication connection channel with the electric hammer power tool and can perform data transmission may also be used to implement the transmission of the control command, for example, by means of an APP or a web client.

It should be noted that the embodiments of the present invention provide only a clutch driving device applied to a power tool. However, according to the disclosure of the above embodiments, a person skilled in the art can combine one or more functional modules in the electric power tool provided in the above embodiments with the clutch driving device to form an electronic clutch or apply the electronic clutch to other tools having similar applications, so as to obtain corresponding technical effects (precise and simple control of switching between different modes, flexible configuration method of switching control, and wide application range).

For example, the electronic clutch may include a clutch body, the clutch driving device, a controller as a control core, and an input device for acquiring a user instruction, so as to control engagement or disengagement of the clutch by an electric signal.

The above description is only an embodiment of the present invention, and not intended to limit the scope of the present invention, and all modifications of equivalent structures and equivalent processes performed by the present specification and drawings, or directly or indirectly applied to other related technical fields, are included in the scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. An electronic clutch, includes the clutch main part, its characterized in that still includes:

the clutch driving device is used for driving the clutch main body to be connected or disconnected according to a control command;

an input device for collecting at least one user instruction;

the controller is respectively connected with the clutch driving device and the input equipment and is configured with preset control logic; the controller is used for receiving a user instruction from the input equipment and outputting a corresponding control instruction to the clutch driving device according to the control logic;

the clutch driving device comprises an electromagnet and a driving circuit thereof, wherein the electromagnet comprises two phase coil windings which are oppositely arranged;

when one phase coil winding is switched on and the other phase coil winding is switched off, the electromagnet is used for driving the clutch main body to move along the direction corresponding to the switched-on coil winding;

and the driving circuit is used for receiving the control instruction and controlling one phase of coil winding in the two phase of coil windings to be switched on according to the control instruction.

2. The electronic clutch according to claim 1, wherein the drive circuit comprises in particular: a working power supply, a pair of switching elements, and a pair of freewheeling diodes;

the working power supply is connected with the coil winding, and the coil winding is grounded through the switching element;

the switch element is provided with an input port for receiving a control signal, and the working state of the switch element is determined according to the control signal, wherein the working state comprises on or off;

the freewheeling diode is reversely connected in parallel to two ends of the coil winding to form a conduction loop of reverse electromotive force.

3. The electronic clutch according to claim 2, wherein the switching element is a power transistor or a MOS transistor.

4. The electronic clutch according to claim 3, wherein the electromagnet is a self-holding electromagnet.

5. An electric power tool, characterized by comprising:

an electric motor that outputs power through a transmission shaft;

a plurality of drive teeth; the transmission teeth correspond to the working modes of the electric tool one by one;

the electronic clutch according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the electronic clutch is disposed corresponding to the transmission teeth, and is configured to control a clutch state between the transmission shaft and the corresponding transmission teeth.

6. The power tool of claim 5, further comprising: and the display device is connected with the controller of the electronic clutch and is used for displaying the current working mode of the electric tool.

7. The power tool of claim 6, wherein the display device is an LED indicator light; the LED indicator lamp has a plurality of flashing modes, and the flashing modes correspond to the working modes of the current electric tool.

8. The power tool of claim 5, further comprising: a communication module; the communication module is connected with a controller of the electronic clutch, and is used for receiving one or more control instructions and transmitting the control instructions to the controller.