GB780327A - Improvements in or relating to centrifugal clutches - Google Patents

Abstract

780,327. Friction clutches. BIAL, W. July 15, 1955 [May 28, 1954], No. 15928/54. Class 80 (2). A centrifugally engaged clutch comprises a driving (or driven) shaft 1 carrying a housing 18 surrounding a rotor 17, of generally elliptical cross-section, on a driven (or driving) shaft carrying a second housing 19 surrounding the housing 18, which is externally also of generally elliptical cross-section, balls 6 or other individually manufactured bodies of determinate shape lying within the two housings. On rotation of either of the shafts 1, 2, the balls 6 move radially outwards under centrifugal force and transmit torque to the inner surface of the surrounding housing. Lubricant is enclosed with the balls. The working surfaces of the rotor and housing may be ribbed, &c. In a modification, Fig. 5 (not shown), the housing on one shaft, surrounding the rotor on the other, extends axially within a housing fast on the second shaft and has a portion which acts therein as a rotor. In another similar modification, Fig. 8 (not shown), a housing on one shaft surrounds a rotor on the other shaft and is extended to form a rotor lying within a housing secured to the second shaft and extending axially to surround the first housing over its full length. In a modification in which torque can be transmitted only from the shaft 1 to the shaft 2 but not from the shaft 2 to the shaft 1, Figs. 1, 2 (not shown), a rotor of generally elliptical cross-section on the shaft 1 lies within a housing fast on the shaft 2, and in a similar modification, Figs. 3, 4 (also not shown), the rotor is provided at both ends with disc-like flanges.