GB881675A - Improvements relating to means for effecting automatic angular adjustment between two shafts - Google Patents

Abstract

881,675. Automatically adjustable shaft couplings. DAIMLER-BENZ A.G. Feb. 1, 1960, No. 3497/60. Class 80 (2). A shaft coupling circumferentially adjusted according to speed and for use in the drive to an internal combustion engine injection pump, a camshaft or an ignition control shaft, comprises a rolling mass or masses between plane, inclined surfaces on interdigitating projections fast with the two coupled shafts and two spring means acting thereon, one spring means opposing the. action of centrifugal force on the mass &c. to adjust the coupling and the other assisting the action of the centrifugal force. In one form, interdigitating segments 14, 15 on hubs 11, 12 secured to the two shaft ends have relatively inclined plane faces 16, 17 between which a ball or roller 18 is located, springs 21 between the segments biasing the plane faces against the ball &c. to oppose its radially outward movement under the influence of centrifugal force when the coupling &c. rotates and a spring 23, the compression of which may be adjusted by turning a screw 24, acting against the brass of the springs 21. The sum of the opposed moments exerted by the springs 21, 23 on the coupled shafts as they turn relatively to each other increases in a linear manner from substantially zero with increasing angle of turn. A stop (not shown) limits the angle through which the shafts may turn with respect to each other. In a modification, Fig. 4 (not shown), two balls &c. and two adjustably compressed springs are provided, and in another modification, Fig. 5 (also not shown), the adjustably compressed spring is replaced by a compressed spring located directly between two balls &c. and passing diametrically through the coupling hubs. As a further modification, the springs 21 may be arranged radially in the coupling on the outside of the balls &c. 18.