GB674499A - Improved fluid torque converter - Google Patents

Abstract

674,499. Hydraulic torque converters. GENERAL MOTORS CORPORATION. July 14, 1950 [July 30, 1949], No. 17633/50. Class 69 (ii). A fluid torque converter comprises vaned impeller and rotor members each having auxiliary vanes with concave and convex surfaces such that the concave surfaces of the respective sets of vanes face one another so as to be capable of transmitting energy from the rotor to the impeller. The driving shaft 6 is attached to a plate 10, drum 12, hub 16, and impeller 14. A second impeller 18 carried by the hub 16 on an overrunning clutch 20 can rotate faster but not slower than the primary impeller 14. The driven shaft 8 is splined in a hub 24 of the rotor 26. Reaction members 28, 30 are mounted on a hub 32 of a member 34 fixed to the casing 2 by means of overrunning clutches 36, 38 so that they may travel in the same direction as the impeller 14 and rotor 26 but not in the reverse direction, thus permitting the torque converter to operate as a fluid coupling under certain conditions. Auxiliary impeller vanes 40 are secured to the rotor 26 and auxiliary rotor vanes 42 are secured to the impeller 14, these vanes together with the semi-toroidal members 44 and 46 to which they are attached, forming an auxiliary fluid circuit, the impeller vanes 40 being at a greater radial distance from the axis of the converter than the rotor vanes 42. The vanes ate convex-concave, the concave face of the impeller vanes and the convex face of the rotor vanes, facing the direction of rotation. Under normal conditions when the primary impeller 14 is driving the rotor 26, and the vanes 42 are travelling faster than the vanes 40, the convex surfaces of the two sets of vanes approach each other and there is a minimum of energy transfer from the vanes 42 to the vanes 40. When the rotor 26 is overrunning the impeller 14, the vanes 40 travel faster than the vanes 42, the respective concave surfaces approaching each other, thus producing an efficient transfer of energy between the vanes. The auxiliary impeller 40 therefore drives the auxiliary rotor 42 and hence the primary impeller 14, this being useful to brake the driving means or to start the driving means by rotation of the primary rotor.