JP2911623B2 - Liquid clutch - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid clutch for transmitting a driving torque of a driving disk to a sealing box by oil supplied to a torque transmitting chamber, and particularly to a cooling fan for an automobile engine mounted on the sealing box. The invention relates to a liquid clutch such as a fan coupling device to be controlled.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The inside of a sealed casing is divided into a torque transmission chamber and an oil sump chamber by a partition plate, and a drive disk fixed to a drive unit is rotatably provided in the torque transmission chamber to partition oil in the oil sump chamber. A liquid clutch having a structure in which oil is supplied to a torque transmission chamber from an outflow adjustment hole formed in a plate and oil in the torque transmission chamber is returned to an oil sump chamber through a circulation path is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. Sho 63-2.
No. 1048 discloses this. According to this type of liquid clutch, the drive torque of the drive disk is transmitted to the sealer box by the oil supplied from the oil reservoir to the torque transmission chamber, and the fan attached to the sealer box rotates, for example, the engine of a car. Is cooled.

However, in such a conventional liquid clutch, the ambient temperature is detected by a bimetal, and when this temperature rises, the opening of the outflow adjustment hole is increased to increase the amount of oil in the torque transmission chamber, thereby increasing the size of the seal box. Increase the speed,
The fan rotates at high speed to increase the cooling effect.

[0004]

However, an automobile engine is driven under various conditions. For example, while driving on a highway, the drive disk rotates at a high speed, but the air cooling effect by the traveling wind is enhanced. If it is not necessary to rotate the fan at a very high speed, or if the number of rotations of the fan is high at the time of a cold start, it will hinder warm-up operation and generate fan noise. In some cases, control is required to keep the cooling water temperature of the engine substantially constant without overshooting. In order to meet this demand, it is not sufficient to control the oil amount only by the ambient temperature.

As described above, according to the prior art, it is not possible to adjust the oil amount with high accuracy in accordance with various operating conditions and perform accurate control.

[0006] The present invention has been made in view of the current situation of this type of liquid clutch as described above, and its object is to adjust the oil amount quickly and with high accuracy in accordance with various operating conditions, and to always accurately adjust the oil amount. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a liquid clutch that performs a precise control.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is directed to a driven-side sealer box supported by a bearing on a rotating shaft having a driving disk fixed to the end of a driving section by a partition plate. Partitioning into an oil sump chamber and a torque transmission chamber containing the drive disk therein, a dam is provided on a part of the inner peripheral wall surface on the sealer box side facing the outer peripheral wall of the drive disk in which oil is collected during rotation, and Forming a circulating flow passage from the torque transmission chamber side to the oil sump chamber side following this dam, and forming an outflow adjustment path leading from the oil sump chamber side to the torque transmission chamber side,
Controls the transmission of rotational torque from the drive side rotating shaft to the driven side seal case by increasing or decreasing the effective oil contact area in the torque transmission gap formed by the opposing surfaces of the built-in drive disk and the seal case. In the liquid clutch, a pair of electromagnets is provided on the front side or the rear side of the sealer box, and a valve member having magnetism for opening and closing the outflow adjustment path opposite to one of the electromagnets and facing the other electromagnet. And a control device for controlling excitation of the electromagnet is provided, and the control device detects a temperature of cooling water for cooling the drive unit. The excitation current to each electromagnet is configured to be controlled based on the output signal of the sensor to be performed, and further based on the output signal of the sensor that detects the rotation speed of the sealing box or the rotation speed of the rotation shaft in addition to this. In things That.

[0008]

According to the present invention, in such a configuration, the opening and closing of the valve member and the sub-valve member provided in the outflow adjustment passage and the circulation flow passage is controlled by an electromagnet so that the oil flows from the oil reservoir to the outflow adjustment passage through the outflow adjustment passage. The oil is supplied to the torque transmission gap between the drive disk of the transmission chamber and the casing of the sealer, and the oil in the torque transmission chamber is returned to the oil reservoir via the dam through the circulation passage. Further, the supply of the oil is controlled based on the temperature of the cooling water of the drive unit, more preferably the rotation speed of the fan or the rotation speed of the rotating shaft rotated by the drive of the drive unit. In this way, an accurate control of the oil amount such as a desired linear characteristic is performed promptly and accurately at all times, and the rotation of the sealing box, specifically, the fan, corresponding to various operating conditions is performed.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a liquid clutch according to the present invention, in which a case 4a is connected to a rotating shaft 2 via a bearing 3 by a rotating shaft 2 driven by the driving of an engine 1 as a driving unit.
It is mounted so as to be rotatable around the axis of. A cover 4b is sealed to the front surface of the case 4a to form a sealed casing 4 as a driven side. The inside of the casing 4 is divided into an oil reservoir 7 and a torque transmission chamber 8 by a partition plate 6, and a disk-shaped drive disk 5 fixed to an end of the rotating shaft 2.
Is provided in the torque transmission chamber 8, and a torque transmission gap 9 is formed between the drive disk 5 and the sealer housing 4. An outflow adjustment path 27 from the oil sump chamber 7 to the torque transmission chamber 8 is provided on the surface of the partition plate 6, and a circulation flow path 13 leading from the torque transmission chamber 8 to the oil sump chamber 7 is provided on the inner wall of the casing 4. It is.

A valve member 10 has one end attached to the partition plate 6 on the oil sump chamber 7 side, and the other end is positioned at an outflow adjustment hole 27a serving as an outflow adjustment path 27, and further, an intermediate portion thereof. A magnetic material piece 11 is attached to the outer surface of the casing 4, and the outflow adjustment hole 6a follows the presence or absence of an exciting current to a concentric circular ring-shaped electromagnet 12a provided at a position facing the magnetic material piece 11 on the front side of the sealer box 4. Open and close.

In the inner peripheral wall of the casing 4, an oil outlet 8 for communicating the circulation passage 13 with the torque transmission chamber 8 is provided.
At position a, a dam 14 as a pumping mechanism is provided,
Oil is pumped from the torque transmission chamber 8 side to the circulation flow passage 13 side. Note that a cooling fan 19 is fixed to the casing 4. Further, a slide valve as a sub-valve member 15 made of a magnetic material is attached to the outlet of the circulation passage 13, and a ring-shaped electromagnet 12 b provided on the front side of the sealer housing 4 opposes the slide valve. (Opening on the oil sump chamber side) is opened and closed. The center of the pair of ring-shaped electromagnets 12a and 12b is attached to a support shaft 16 provided at the center of the outside of the casing 4 via a bearing 17, and the other is fixed to a part of the vehicle body. Without being limited to this, as shown in FIG. 2A, the single-piece electromagnets 12a, 12a, 12b, 12c are provided on the outer wall of the sealer housing 4 corresponding to the valve member 10, the sub-valve member 15 or the magnetic piece 11 provided thereon. 12b may be fixed to be excited via the slip ring contact 23. Further, a support piece having single-piece electromagnets 12a and 12b instead of a ring at a position corresponding to the rotation trajectory of the valve member 10, the sub-valve member 15 or the magnetic piece 11 provided thereon is fixed to the outside to make the case 1 The electromagnet may be provided on the rear surface side of the sealer box 4, that is, on the rotating shaft 2 side as shown in FIG. 2C.

On the other hand, as the sub-valve member 15, an embodiment as shown in FIGS. 2B and 2C can be applied in addition to the slide valve as in the embodiment of FIG. That is, in FIG. 2B, a band-shaped sub-valve member 15 ′ made of spring steel and having one end riveted to the partition plate 6 or the like is provided substantially parallel to the valve member 10, and the other end is bent to form the circulation flow passage 13. The electromagnet 1 is configured to open and close the exit side.
FIG. 2C shows a magnetic member 24 provided at a position corresponding to the electromagnet 12b.
5, a spool valve 15 "is provided to open and close the middle of the circulation flow passage 13.

As shown in FIG. 2A, when the outflow adjusting hole 27a is opened in the inner peripheral wall of the oil reservoir chamber 7 and is formed in the cover 4b so as to communicate with the torque transmitting chamber 8, it is used as an auxiliary valve member. Valve member 1 instead of slide valve or spool valve
A shape like 0 can also be used.

The exciting currents of the electromagnets 12a and 12b are controlled by a controller 18. This control device 18 includes a fan 1
9, an output signal of a fan speed sensor 20 for detecting the rotation speed of the engine 1, an output signal of a speed sensor 21 for detecting the rotation speed of the rotating shaft 2, and an output signal of a cooling water temperature sensor 22 for detecting the temperature of the cooling water of the engine 1. Is supplied. Reference numeral 26 denotes a cooling fin provided on the cover 4b.

Next, the operation of the first embodiment having the structure shown in FIG. 1 will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the control operation of one embodiment. In this embodiment, a fan speed signal Nf as the number of revolutions of the fan, an engine speed signal Ne as the number of revolutions of the rotating shaft, cooling of the engine are provided. Water temperature signal T as water temperature
w is taken into the control device 18 as an output signal S from each of the sensors 20, 21, and 22. Based on these output signals S, the characteristic data calculation circuit of the control device 18 obtains characteristic data (A) between the fan speed and the engine speed shown in FIG.
The characteristic data between the fan speed and the cooling water temperature (B) and the time characteristic data of the engine speed (C) are calculated as characteristic data.

These characteristic data D ((A) (B)
(C)) and the output signal S (Ne, Tw, Nf), control data is calculated by the control data calculation circuit of the control device 18, and the electromagnet 1 is determined based on the obtained control data.
An excitation current is supplied to the motors 2a and 12b for a required time to control the oil amount in the torque transmission gap 9. That is, in step S1 of FIG. 3, it is determined whether the engine is in an accelerating state based on the engine speed signal Ne and the time characteristic data (C) of the engine speed by a conditional expression dNe / dt> dne / dt (where, dne / dt is determined by the change rate of the engine speed stored in the control device 18). If the determination in step S1 is YES, the process proceeds to step S2 and Nf = No
The fan speed Nf is set as the minimum fan speed Noff as ff, and the process proceeds to step S5. Note that, depending on the required characteristics of the vehicle, even if the determination in step S1 is NO, the process proceeds to step S2 during the transmission acceleration and / or while maintaining the high engine speed after acceleration, or a predetermined time after the Noff signal is output. Even if the time step S2 is maintained, or even if the determination in step S1 is YES, the process returns to step S3 while the cooling water temperature is slightly overheated and / or when the engine speed is relatively low with the air conditioner turned on. Alternatively, the process may proceed to step S5 with Nf = Non. Then, in step S5, the fan calculation speed n
The control is determined by comparing f with the input fan speed signal Nf, and the electromagnets 12a and 12b are controlled in step S6 according to the determination in step S5.

If the determination in step S1 is NO, the flow advances to step S3 to calculate the maximum fan speed Non and the minimum fan speed Noff.
4 and change the fan speed to nf = f (Noff, Non,
_Tw, is calculated by _T 1, T _2). For example, when controlling the fan speed linearly with respect to the cooling water temperature, And proceeds to step S5 to obtain the fan operation speed nf
Is compared with the input fan speed signal Nf, control is determined, and control of the electromagnets 12a and 12b is performed in step S6 according to the determination in step S5.

By controlling in this way, the amount of silicon oil in the torque transmission gap 9 is changed with high precision and in a wide range. Therefore, for example, when accelerating the fan 19, an appropriate amount of silicone oil corresponding to the temperature of the cooling water of the engine 1, the rotation speed of the rotating shaft 2 (proportional to the rotation speed of the engine 1) and the rotation speed of the fan 19 is supplied to the valve member 10. Is opened and the sub-valve member 15 is closed to be fed from the outflow adjustment passage 27 into the torque transmission gap 9 so that when the fan 19 is decelerated, the amount of silicon oil in the torque transmission gap 9 becomes an appropriate amount. When the valve member 10 is closed and the sub-valve member 15 is opened, the silicone oil flows out of the torque transmission gap 9 through the circulation passage 13, or the silicon oil in the torque transmission gap 9 if no acceleration or deceleration is required. Is kept constant, and both the valve member 10 and the sub-valve member 15 are closed so as to maintain a constant rotation. Then, the drive torque of the drive disk 5 is transmitted to the seal case 4 via an appropriate amount of silicone oil in the torque transmission gap 9, and the fan 19 rotates at a steady state.

In the embodiment, when the temperature of the cooling water is large near the upper limit of the cooling water temperature of the engine 1, the fan speed is increased. Conversely, when the temperature of the cooling water drops, the fan speed is reduced. Also, as shown in FIG. 4, when the rotation speed of the rotating shaft 2 rises sharply, as shown by a dotted line, the fan rotation speed is controlled in a decreasing direction, and the effect of reducing the fan rotation speed shown by the hatching is obtained. Demonstrate.

In the rotation characteristics of the rotating shaft 2 and the fan 19 shown in FIG. 5, the control is performed in the region B when the cooling water temperature of the engine 1 is at a normal temperature, but the cooling water temperature exceeds the upper limit water temperature. And the control is performed in the A region.

As described above, according to the embodiment, the temperature of the cooling water of the engine 1, the rotation speed of the engine 1, and the fan 19
The optimum amount of silicone oil corresponding to the rotation speed of the fan 19 is made to exist in the torque transmission chamber 8, and the control is performed in a state where the rotation speed of the fan 19 does not largely change as shown in FIG. The temperature of the cooling water of the engine 1 is also kept substantially constant, the control is performed under optimal conditions adapted to cold starting, running on a highway, and sudden acceleration, the noise of the fan 19 is reduced, and the fuel consumption is wasted. Is prevented.

Although the embodiment has been described for controlling the oil flow into the torque transmission chamber based on the cooling water temperature of the engine, the engine speed and the fan speed, the present invention is limited to the embodiment. For example, at least one of the above factors, or in addition to these, the running air volume, outside air temperature, intake air temperature, vehicle speed, throttle opening, air pressure, presence or absence of knocking, air conditioner status, exhaust brake status, etc. It is also possible to adopt a configuration in addition to the control factor.

[0024]

As described above, according to the liquid clutch of the present invention, the oil supplied to the torque transmission gap between the drive disk and the casing can be quickly and accurately controlled in accordance with the drive conditions of the drive unit. By doing so, the drive torque of the drive disk is always transmitted to the seal box in an optimal transmission state in accordance with the various drive conditions, and an optimal clutch operation can be performed under various drive conditions, thereby reducing fan noise. Many effects can be expected, such as reduction, fuel saving, and improvement in acceleration performance.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an overall configuration of the present invention.

FIG. 2A is a partially enlarged sectional view of another embodiment of the electromagnet of the present invention.

FIG. 2B is a partially enlarged sectional view of another embodiment of the sub-valve member of the present invention.

FIG. 2C is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view of still another embodiment of the sub-valve member.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing operating characteristics of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is another diagram showing the operation characteristics of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 engine 2 rotating shaft 3 bearing 4 sealer box 5 drive disk 6 partition plate 7 oil sump chamber 8 torque transmission chamber 9 torque transmission gap 10 valve member 11 magnetic pieces 12a, 12b ring-shaped electromagnet 13 circulation outflow path 14 dam 15 sub Valve member 18 Control device 19 Fan 27 Outflow adjustment path 27a Outflow adjustment hole

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) F16D 35/02 F01P 7/08

Claims (11)

(57) [Claims] 1. An oil reservoir and a torque transmission chamber containing the drive disk inside a driven-side sealer box supported by a bearing on a rotating shaft having a drive disk fixed to the tip of a drive unit. And a dam on a part of the inner peripheral wall on the side of the sealer box facing the outer peripheral wall of the drive disk where oil is collected during rotation, and an oil reservoir from the torque transmission chamber side following this dam. In addition to forming a circulation flow path to the chamber side, an outflow adjustment path from the oil sump chamber side to the torque transmission chamber side is formed, and a torque transmission gap formed by the opposing surfaces of the built-in drive disk and sealer housing is formed. In a liquid clutch for increasing or decreasing the effective contact area of oil to control the transmission of rotational torque from a rotating shaft on a driving side to a sealed casing on a driven side, a pair of electromagnets are provided on the front side or the rear side of the sealed casing. And flow out facing one of the electromagnets A liquid clutch, comprising: a valve member having magnetism for opening and closing the adjustment passage; and a sub-valve member having magnetism for opening and closing the circulation flow passage facing the other electromagnet. 2. The liquid clutch according to claim 1, wherein a cooling fan is fixed to the casing. 3. The liquid clutch according to claim 1, further comprising a control device for controlling excitation of the electromagnet. 4. The liquid clutch according to claim 3, wherein the control device controls an exciting current to each electromagnet based on an output signal from a sensor that detects a temperature of cooling water for cooling the driving unit. 5. The liquid clutch according to claim 4, wherein said control device further controls an exciting current to each electromagnet based on an output signal from a sensor for detecting at least the number of rotations of the case or the number of rotations of the rotating shaft. 6. The liquid clutch according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the valve member and the sub-valve member is made of a magnetic material. 7. The liquid clutch according to claim 1, wherein a magnetic piece is attached to the valve member and the sub-valve member. 8. The liquid clutch according to claim 1, wherein the electromagnet is mounted on a vehicle body or an engine block and is disposed in a ring shape or a single piece shape. 9. The liquid clutch according to claim 1, wherein the electromagnet is fixed to an outer wall of a casing. 10. The liquid clutch according to claim 1, wherein the valve member or the sub-valve member comprises a slide valve or a band-shaped bent portion that opens and closes an outlet side or an inlet side of the outflow adjustment passage or the circulation passage. 11. The liquid clutch according to claim 1, wherein the valve member or the sub-valve member comprises a spool valve that opens and closes in an outflow adjustment passage or a circulation passage.