GB663929A - Wet plate clutch - Google Patents

Abstract

663,929. Friction clutches. TRIGGS, W. W. (Caterpillar Tractor Co.). March 9, 1949, No. 6404/49. Class 80 (ii) In a multi-plate clutch of the kind in which the working surfaces operate in a bath of liquid coolant, co-acting clutch plates 20, 24, Fig. 2, are spaced apart on declutching by coil springs 57 mounted in apertures in alternate clutch plates and acting on the adjacent plate or plates as through cap members 58 whose outward move ment is limited by the abutment of flanges thereon against rings 6( pressed into the apertures. As shown, driver plates 20, Fig. 1, slid ably splined on a gear shaped member 21 fast or a driven shaft 14, carry friction facings 22, and the springs 57 are mounted both in driving plates 24 slidably splined to a cover plate 18, and in an axially fixed end driving plate 17, both the plates 18, 17 being bolted to an engine flywheel 10. The rearmost plate 24 has lugs 25 co-acting with clutch disengaging springs 27, and lugs 29 carrying a ring 30 acted on by a toggle and cam clutch-operating linkage 40, 37, 31 incorporating a split collar 33 threadedly engaged with a supporting hub 34 for clutch adjustment and normally clamped thereto by a bolt 36. Either the surfaces of the plates 24 or, as shown, the friction facings 22 have a single spiral groove 45, Fig. 4, broken by radial grooves 46, these grooves 45, 46 being provided to circulate cooling oil past the clutch plates even during clutch engagement. Oil is pumped through passages 47, 48, 50 and collects in the concave webs of the gear shaped member 21 from which it passes under centrifugal action via ducts 51 to the plate working surfaces, its entry to which is preferably assisted by bevels 55 on the plates 24. The plate spacing springs may be disposed in the plates 20 instead of the plates 24, as shown in Fig. 4, where spacing assemblies comprising two springs 63 acting at one side only of the plate through a cap 62 retained by members 64 riveted to the plate are disposed at intervals round the plate, alternate assemblies acting at opposite sides thereof.