JP3106604B2 - Rotary shaft coupling device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a rotary shaft connecting device installed in an engine test stand or the like in an engine production line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in an engine production line, after an engine is assembled and tested, the engine is usually sent to the next step. For this reason, conventionally, as illustrated in FIG. 4, the rotating shaft 2 of the engine 1 has been connected to a test device 4 using a coupling device 3. That is, the assembled engine 1 is mounted on a pallet 5, carried into a test stand, and positioned. Then, the male spline 7 of the coupling device 3 of the test stand 6 extends in the axial direction, and is fitted and coupled to the female spline 9 provided on the clutch portion 8 of the engine 1. The coupling device 3 is connected to a rotating shaft of a device 4 for testing or the like. As a device 4 for testing or the like, a dynamometer or the like for absorbing a load is used when performing a load test on the engine, and a starter connected via a one-way clutch is used when performing a no-load test on the engine. Use a motor. The load test is performed while starting the engine with a dynamometer or the like and applying a load. The no-load test starts the engine with a starter motor. After starting, the starter motor is slid with a one-way clutch so as not to over-rotate due to high engine speed. In this state, the coupling device 3 is separated from the rotating shaft 2 of the engine 1, and an engine no-load test is performed. Is what you do.

[0003]

In the above-described conventional rotary shaft coupling device, a spline coupling mechanism is used, and therefore, a spline must be formed on the rotary shaft portion. Therefore, for example, an engine for a manual transmission vehicle is provided with a clutch and a female spline is formed on a rotating shaft portion thereof, so that a conventional coupling device can be used as it is. However, in the case of an engine of an automatic transmission vehicle, a female spline is not formed on a rotating shaft portion since no clutch is provided. Therefore, conventionally, a dummy clutch was attached to an engine for an automatic transmission vehicle before the test, and a female spline was prepared on a rotating shaft portion thereof, and a male spline of a conventional coupling device was coupled to the female spline. Thus, in the case of an engine without a female spline on the rotating shaft,
There is a problem in that a dummy clutch is temporarily attached to the engine at a stage prior to the test process, and after the test is completed, the dummy clutch is detached, and then the drive plate of the automatic transmission car needs to be reattached. Furthermore, even in the engine of a manual transmission vehicle, if the spline has a different specification, it is necessary to use a tool such as a jig with a more complicated structure adapted to the male spline of the conventional coupling device, and take measures to adapt the spline. There was a problem that had to be.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above, the present invention makes it possible to easily connect even when a spline is not formed on a rotating shaft or when spline specifications are different, so that the connection is made by more compatible connecting means. It is another object of the present invention to provide a new coupling device for a rotating shaft.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided a rotating shaft coupling device in which a sliding member is mounted so as to be slidable and integrally rotate with a shaft connected to one of the rotating shafts. The driving unit is connected to the driving unit, which can be slid forward and backward, the engaging claw is pivotally attached to the sliding member, and the tooth provided on the engaging claw is provided on the other rotating shaft to be connected. And the tooth portion is pressed against the gear when the meshing claw portion rotates at high speed due to centrifugal force acting on the unbalance weight provided on the meshing claw portion. .

[0006]

With the construction described above, the drive unit connected to the sliding member performs forward and backward sliding operations, thereby providing the rotating shaft gear to be coupled to the rotating shaft connected to the coupling device. The engaging claw portion of the coupling device main body can be engaged and disengaged. Further, even in the coupled state where torque pulsation is present on one of the rotating shafts, the meshing teeth of the coupling device meshed with the gear of the one rotating shaft by centrifugal force acting on the unbalance weight in proportion to the number of rotations. The part is pressed so as to eliminate the gap in this part, thereby preventing the tapping sound from being generated from this part.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of a rotary shaft connecting device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. In FIGS. 1 to 3, the portions corresponding to the above-described conventional example shown in FIG. 4 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part of the apparatus of the present embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a front view of the main part. In FIG.
The crankshaft 2 which is a rotating shaft shown in FIG. 1 is an engine for a manual transmission vehicle. For this purpose, a generally used clutch 8 is provided at the end of the crankshaft 2. A ring gear 11 a is provided on an outer peripheral portion of the clutch 8. In the case of an engine for an automatic transmission vehicle,
As shown in FIG. 3, a generally used drive plate 12 is installed at the end of the crankshaft 2 which is the rotating shaft. On the outer peripheral portion of the drive plate 12, a ring gear 11b having the same shape as the ring gear 11a of the clutch 8 described above is provided. As described above, the ring gears 11 of the engine for the manual transmission vehicle and the engine for the automatic transmission vehicle are used.
Since a and 11b are the same, the same coupling device body 10 is used.
With the configuration described above, the joining and separating operations can be performed. A shaft hole is formed at the tip of the crankshaft 2, and a pilot bush 28 is installed.

The main body 10 of the coupling device mainly includes a meshing portion 13, a spline shaft 14, and a driving portion 15.
The meshing portion 13 is configured to slidably insert a shaft hole 16a formed along the center axis of the sliding member 16 into the spline shaft 14 by spline coupling. At the front end of the engagement portion 13, a round shaft-shaped positioning rod 17 protruding along the central axis is provided. In addition, meshing pawls 18 are pivotally connected to the grooves 13a at both ends which vertically contact the front rectangular portion of the meshing portion 13 in the drawing. As shown in the figure, the meshing claw portion 18 includes a meshing claw 18a extending forward, a pivoting portion 18b formed at the lower center thereof, and an unbalance weight portion 18c extending rearward.

The meshing claw 18a has a tooth portion 19 formed below the extended end thereof for meshing with the ring gears 11a and 11b. The length of the teeth of the tooth portion 19 is the same as that of the ring gear 11a, 1
The length is required to be longer than the length of the tooth 1b so as to absorb the position error at the time of meshing. The pivot portion 18b is inserted into the groove 13a of the meshing portion 13 and pivoted by a hinge pin 20 passing therethrough. Further, a wedge-shaped gap 21 is formed between the groove 13a and the bottom of the pivot portion 18b to be brought into contact with the groove 13a. Is formed so as to be able to rotate by a small angle inward from the position where it meshes. At the same time, a bottomed hole having a predetermined length penetrating linearly from the groove 13a to the pivot portion 18b is formed in the gap 21 portion. By arranging a compression coil spring 22 in this portion, the compression coil spring 22 is urged to keep the meshing claw portion 18 open so that the tooth portion 19 can mesh with the ring gears 11a and 11b.

A ring member 24 is axially mounted on the outer periphery of the sliding member 16 at the engagement portion 13 via a bearing 23.

The arm member 2 extending laterally is attached to the support member 24.
5 is protruded. The free end of the arm member 25 includes a drive unit 15
Of the piston rod 15a is fastened. Drive unit 1
5 is configured to control the expansion / contraction operation of the piston rod 15a mounted on the cylinder by hydraulic or pneumatic pressure.

The spline shaft 14 is connected to a rotating shaft 27 of a starter motor via a one-way clutch 26 because the illustrated device is configured for an engine no-load test device. When the coupling device main body is configured for a load test, the spline shaft 14 is directly connected to a rotating shaft of a dynamometer or the like serving as a load absorber.

Next, the operation of the apparatus of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described.

First, when the test engine is carried into the test stand provided with the coupling device main body of the present embodiment, the engagement portion 13 is made to stand by at the position retracted to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. . The engine 1 carried into the test stand is positioned by the front side 1a of the cylinder block. Next, the drive unit 15 is operated to advance the meshing unit 13 to a position shown by a solid line in FIG. Then, the positioning rod 17 is first inserted into the pilot bush 28 to position the coupling device main body 10 with respect to the engine 1. Further, the meshing portion 13 is advanced, and the teeth 19 of the ring gears 11a and 11b are meshed and connected. Note that, in order to facilitate the coupling operation at this time, the length B of the pilot bush 28 is formed to be longer than the length A of the tooth portion 19. If the gears do not match in phase, they do not mesh with each other, so the tip of the tooth portion 19 is chamfered. At the same time, the starter motor or the dynamometer of the test device 4 gives the meshing portion 13 a very fine rotation (about 50 rpm) to facilitate the meshing. The forward stroke of the engagement portion 13 is determined at the stroke end of the drive portion 15. When there is a difference in the longitudinal direction between the position of the ring gear 11a of the engine for a manual transmission vehicle and the position of the ring gear 11b of the engine for an automatic transmission vehicle, the difference is absorbed by the length A of the tooth portion 19. I do.

Next, in the case of an engine no-load test,
The engine is started (fired) with the starter motor rotating at 200 to 300 rpm via the one-way clutch 26. When the engine starts, the rotation speed naturally increases, and when the rotation speed of the starter motor starts, the one-way clutch 26 starts to slide. After confirming the slippage of the one-way clutch 26, the driving unit 1
5 to retract the piston rod 15a,
3 is retracted to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. Thus, the no-load operation test is performed in a state where the teeth 19 are detached from the ring gears 11a and 11b and the coupling device main body 10 is separated from the rotation shaft of the engine 1. Note that the starter motor is usually a geared motor or the like, and outputs the rotation of the motor at a reduced speed. Therefore, if the rotation of the starter motor follows the rotation of the engine after the engine is started, the starter motor rotates at an extremely high speed and may be damaged. This protects the starter motor by preventing transmission to the starter motor side.

Next, the operation of the test stand for performing the load operation test of the engine will be described. In this case, after the meshing portion 13 is connected to the ring gears 11a and 11b of the rotating shaft portion of the engine 1 by the operation described above, the load absorber (for example, an AC dynamometer or a DC dynamometer) of the test device 4 is used. And a load operation test is performed in a state where the engine and the load absorber are coupled by the coupling device body. In this case, as described above, the one-way clutch 26 is not used in the coupling device main body.

Next, when the motor is rotated to a high speed in a load operation state, for example, when the sliding member 16 of the coupling device main body 10 and the meshing claw portion 18 are integrally formed, the ring gear 11a is caused by torque pulsation on the engine side. , 11b and the tooth portion 19 generate a tapping sound in the gap between the tooth surfaces, thereby preventing the test.

In particular, in the case of an engine of an automatic transmission vehicle that does not have a flywheel for absorbing torque pulsation, the tapping sound is increased.

Therefore, in this embodiment, the sliding member 16 and the meshing claw portion 18 are pivotally mounted on the hinge pin 20, and an unbalance weight 18c is provided. For this reason, when the rotation speed exceeds the idle rotation during the load operation, the centrifugal force F acting on the unbalance weight 18 c in proportion to the rotation speed causes the meshing claw portion 18 to move the hinge pin 20 against the urging force of the spring 22. Is pivoted by a small angle in the direction of arrow A, and the tooth portions 19 are pressed against the tooth surfaces of the ring gears 11a and 11b so as to eliminate the gap between these tooth surfaces and prevent tapping noise. The size of the gap 21 may be slightly larger than the above-described gap between the tooth surfaces.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and it is needless to say that various other configurations can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0021]

As described in detail above, according to the rotating shaft coupling device of the present invention, the sliding member is mounted so as to be slidable and rotate integrally with the shaft connected to one of the rotating shafts. The engaging pawl is pivotally attached to the sliding member, and the teeth provided on the engaging pawl can be engaged with the gear provided on the other rotating shaft to be connected, and the unbalance provided on the engaging pawl. When the meshing claw rotates at high speed due to the centrifugal force acting on the weight, the tooth is pressed against the gear, and the drive unit connected to the sliding member performs forward and backward sliding operations,
The gear of the other rotating shaft is meshed with the meshing claw portion of the coupling device provided on one rotating shaft, and is configured to be able to be separated, so if the other rotating shaft has a specific gear, it is connected by itself, This has the effect of enabling separation. Therefore, the rotation axis of the engine for a manual transmission vehicle,
For those having a common ring gear, such as a rotary shaft of an engine for an automatic transmission vehicle, the coupling and disconnecting operation can be performed by the same coupling device. For this reason, there is an effect that it is not necessary to perform a troublesome operation such as attaching or detaching a dummy clutch to or from a rotating shaft of an engine for an automatic transmission vehicle as in the related art, thereby improving work efficiency.

In addition, even in the coupled state where torque pulsation is present on the other rotating shaft, the centrifugal force acting on the unbalance weight in proportion to the rotational speed causes the coupling device meshing with the gear of the other rotating shaft. Since the meshing tooth portion is pressed to eliminate the gap in this portion, it is possible to prevent the generation of a tapping sound in this portion.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part of a coupled state showing an example of a rotary shaft coupling device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view of a main part of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of a main part of the embodiment in a separated state.

FIG. 4 is a schematic side view illustrating a conventional rotating shaft coupling device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Engine 2 ... Rotary shaft 4 ... Test device 10 ... Coupling device main body 11a, 11b ... Ring gear 13 ... Meshing part 14 ... Spline shaft 15 ... Drive part 16 ... Sliding member 18 ... Meshing claw part 18a ... Meshing claw 18b: pivot portion 18c: unbalance weight portion 19: tooth portion 20: hinge pin 21: gap 22: spring 27: rotating shaft

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A sliding member is mounted on a shaft connected to one of the rotating shafts so as to be slidable and integrally rotatable, and a tooth portion of a meshing claw pivotally attached to the sliding member is provided. The other gear can be meshed with the gear of the rotating shaft to be connected, and the tooth portion provided on the meshing claw meshes with the gear by the centrifugal force acting when the unbalance weight provided on the meshing claw is rotated. The gear unit is configured to be pressed against the gear, and configured to perform forward and backward sliding operations for engaging and disengaging the gear with the gear by a driving unit connected to the sliding member. Rotary shaft coupling device.