GB290808A - Improvements in, or relating to, electric starting apparatus for internal combustion engines - Google Patents

Abstract

290,808. Walker, C. B., and Mitchell, R. J. April 27, 1927. Starting; turning-gear.-In order to relieve the load when starting an engine normally coupled to a compressor or other load, an arbor A having an external screw-thread is coupled to an electric motor-generator or to the engine, and a sleeve B screwing on the arbor is coupled to the engine or motor-generator, a driving member being loosely mounted on the sleeve and the arbor being coupled and uncoupled by the endwise movement of the sleeve in relation to the arbor. As shown in Fig. 1, the arbor A is coupled permanently to a mptor-generator (not shown) and the sleeve B carries a pulley b permanently coupled to the engine. A pulley D loose on the arbor is coupled to a compressor or other load and has a friction face d adapted to engage the face c of a collar C on the arbor. Ball thrust bearings F, G are provided. The sleeve brings the faces c,. d into engagement when the engine is running normally, but separates them when the engine is being started by the motorgenerator. In a modification, the pulley D is replaced by a disc coupled to a collar on a load shaft. In another form, the pulley b is replaced by a disc coupled to the engine. In a further form, Fig. 7, the arbor H is connected permanently to the engine, and the sleeve B is integral with a disc B<2> with friction surfaces b<1>, b<2>. Pulleys J, L on the sleeve B are connected by belts to pulleys J<1>, L' on the shaft of a motor-generator K ; the pulley J is connected to the sleeve B by a free-wheel clutch and the pulley L may be connected to the sleeve by a free-wheel clutch working in the opposite direction, the friction surface b<2> then being unnecessary. A collar N loose on the sleeve B is secured to the load shaft S. Ball thrust bearings M, q are provided. At starting, the motor-generator K drives the engine through the pulleys J<1>, J and the sleeves B, the latter moving to the left to bring the friction surface b<1> into engagement with the pulley J. When the engine starts, the sleeve B moves to the right, bringing the friction surfaces b<2>, into engagement, so that the motor-generator is driven through the pulleys L, L' and the load shaft S is also driven. The Provisional Specification describes also a modification in which the screwed sleeve moves at starting into engagement with a small pinion by which the engine is driven; when the engine is running the sleeve moves into engagement with a larger pinion through which the starting motor is driven as a generator.