JPH0147626B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a starter meshing device, and more particularly, to a starter meshing device that prevents gear end faces from being damaged due to impact force when the starter pinion and engine ring gear end faces collide.

Conventionally, starter meshing devices have been developed, for example, by
As shown in Japanese Patent No. 123357, etc., the pinion gear was formed integrally with the inner part of the roller clutch to form a pinion clutch assembly. For this reason, when the pinion gear and the engine's ring gear are engaged, the pinion clutch, which is pushed by electromagnetic force, collides violently with the gear end face, causing chipping or abnormal wear on the ring gear end face, reducing the durability life of the ring gear. It had drawbacks.

The object of the present invention has been made in view of the above points, and is to provide a starter meshing device that can extend the life of the ring gear and significantly increase the number of starter starts.

In order to achieve such an object, the present invention has devised a solution based on the following idea. That is, as a method of reducing the impact force at the time of a collision, there is a method of providing a buffer spring or the like on the colliding member to buffer the kinetic energy before the collision. Similarly, the present invention also provides a buffer spring in the pinion clutch to buffer the impact force on the pinion clutch.

Here, regarding the installation location of the buffer spring, if we divide the pinion clutch into the clutch part including the inner part and the pinion gear part, the part with the greatest buffering effect is between the clutch part and the pinion gear part, and the buffer spring is All you have to do is insert a spring to prevent the clutch portion, which has a large amount of kinetic energy, from colliding. However, the pinion gear portion is rotated at high speed by the ring gear after the engine is started, and if a buffer spring is installed without a scattering prevention member, for example, it will break in a short period of time.

Therefore, it would be better to make the pinion part larger than before to provide sufficient space for installing the spring, but on the other hand, this increases the weight of the pinion part, which goes against the original problem and does not reduce the impact force. The problem of getting used to it remains.

In order to make the shape substantially the same as the conventional one, and to have a small and simple structure, the buffer spring is housed in the inner circumferential surface of the inner part, thereby preventing the buffer spring from expanding due to centrifugal force. In this case, as a countermeasure against the decrease in strength due to the small wall thickness of the inner part, instead of adopting the conventional method of integrating the clutch outer and inner parts using a groove provided between the inner part and the pinion part, the inner part Conversely, a ring-shaped protrusion is installed on the clutch outer part and the inner part to integrate the clutch outer part and the inner part.

In addition, the power transmission between the inner part and the pinion gear part is carried out by fitting parallel splines, and in order to prevent the two from separating due to the pressing force of the buffer spring installed between them, the pinion gear part side is connected to the spline of the inner part. After being pushed into the inner part, the spline end face on the pinion gear side is used as a stopper, and a ring-shaped member is integrally attached to the pinion gear side end face on the inner part side so as to be in contact with the spline end face.

Furthermore, as an inner seat for the buffer spring, it is possible to penetrate through the inner side and receive it in the outer part, but since relative rotation occurs between the buffer spring and the outer part and causes abnormal wear, It is optimal to install a stopper member on a part of the inner member that rotates integrally or on the inner periphery of the inner part, and in the present invention, the spline on the inner periphery of the inner part has a stepped configuration, and the stepped part serves as a seat for the buffer spring. It is.

Furthermore, in the present invention, since the inner part and the pinion gear side are separated, the normal rotation and reverse rotation performance of the clutch can be improved by intervening metal in the spline part used for the spring seat to support the inner part. This is to prevent the decline.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be explained in detail using the implementation side.

The drawing is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a starter meshing device according to the present invention. There is a motor part 1,
The rotation of this motor section 1 is transmitted to an output shaft 3 via an armature 2 and a helical spline 4. On the other hand, there is a clutch section 5, which includes a first clutch main body (hereinafter referred to as clutch main body A) 6 and a roller 7, which are fitted to the helical spline 4 so as to be thrust movable, and a second clutch main body (hereinafter referred to as clutch main body A). (referred to as subject B) consists of 8. Clutch main body B8
It is composed of an inner member 11 having a parallel spline A10 having an inner metal 9 press-fitted into its inner periphery, and a ring-shaped stopper member 13 integrally crimped to one end of the inner member 11 with an inner cover 12. A pinion gear member 14 is inserted into the output shaft 3, and this pinion gear member 1
4 has a parallel spline B15 and a gear part 16, and the parallel spline A10 of the inner member 11
The end of the parallel spline B15 contacts the stopper member 13 of the clutch main body B8 to restrict thrust movement toward the engine. In addition, there is a buffer spring 17,
One end of this buffer spring 17 is supported by a step 18 of a parallel spline A10 of the inner member 11, and the other side is in contact with the pinion gear member 14. A ring-shaped protrusion 19 is formed on the outer periphery of the inner member 11, and a ring cover 21 is integrally crimped with the clutch cover 20 on the clutch main body A6.
At the same time, the movement of the clutch main body B8 is restricted. Further, movement of the roller 7 is restricted by a washer 22. In the figure, 23 is a pinion metal, 24 is an engine ring gear, 25 is a stopper, 26 is a clip, 27 is a metal, 28 is a housing, 29 is a shift lever, 30 is a torsion spring, 31 is a plunger, and 32 is a solenoid switch. , 33 indicates a ring washer.

The operation of the starter meshing device configured in this manner will be described below. Turn on the starter key switch
Then, electromagnetic force is generated in the solenoid switch 32, and the plunger 31 is attracted. At the same time, the shift lever 29 rotates to shift the clutch portion 5 to the ring gear 2.
Push it to the 4th side. Further, the pinion gear member 14 is pushed by the inner member 11 via a sufficiently strong buffer spring 17, and is pushed together with the clutch portion 5 toward the ring gear 24 side. Therefore, the clutch portion 5 and the pinion gear member 14 move at the same speed on the output shaft 3 while rapidly increasing the speed, and the end surfaces of the gear portion 16 of the pinion gear member 14 and the teeth of the ring gear 24 collide with each other. At this time, the kinetic energy of the pinion gear member 14 is instantaneously released and an impact force is generated, but the clutch portion 5 is
The clutch portion 5 moves on the output shaft 3 and the pinion member 14 while gradually reducing its speed, and there is no instantaneous release of the kinetic energy of the clutch portion 5. In the process of the buffer spring 17 being deflected, the main contact of the starter motor 1 is turned on, the armature 2 rotates, the rotation is transmitted to the clutch portion 5 and the pinion gear member 14 via the helical spline 4, and the ring gear 24 is rotated. The teeth of the gear portion 16 are slipped between the teeth, the collision state of each tooth is released, the pinion gear member 14 and the ring gear 24 mesh, and rotational force is transmitted to the engine.

Through the above meshing operation, the pinion gear member 1
When the gear section 16 of No. 4 collides with the ring gear 24, the instantaneous release of kinetic energy of the clutch section 5 can be prevented, and the impact force at the time of the collision can be reduced. In addition, usually after the engine starts, the pinion gear member 1
4 is subjected to high-speed rotation of tens of thousands of revolutions per minute due to the rotational force from the ring gear 24. However, by installing the buffer spring 17 inside the inner member 11 as in this structure, the buffer spring 17 is prevented from spreading due to centrifugal force. This has the effect of preventing damage.

In addition, by press-fitting the inner metal 9 directly into the parallel spline 10 of the inner member 11 and by using the end face of the helical spline 15 of the pinion gear member 14 as a stopper for regulating the thrust movement of the pinion gear member 14, the overall length is shortened, and the meshing device This has the effect of making it smaller.

Furthermore, by using the stepped portion 18 of the stepped parallel spline 10 as a seat for the buffer spring 17, a special stopper device is not required, the structure is simplified, and the ring-shaped protrusion of the inner member 11 allows the clutch portion 5 to be Integration has the effect of improving the strength of the inner member 11.

Furthermore, the behavior of the pinion clutch when it is pushed out by the shift lever is largely different between the straight spline and the helical spline in terms of the engagement method between the clutch main body A and the shaft.
With a straight spline, the pinion clutch simply moves straight in response to the pushing force, and the pinion clutch's protrusion speed becomes extremely high. On the other hand, in the case of helical spline engagement, in order for the pinion clutch to move,
Along with parallel movement, rotational movement of the pinion clutch is required due to the helical torsion angle. Therefore, the pushing force is divided into the force required for parallel movement and the force for rotating the pinion clutch, and the speed of movement is significantly lower than in the case of the former straight spline.

Therefore, in order to reduce the collision force between the pinion and the ring gear, a structure including a helical spline is extremely effective. However, if the clutch main body A and the shaft are simply engaged by a helical spline, a thrust force is applied to the clutch main body A due to the helical screw action generated during torque transmission, which overcomes the buffer spring force applied between the clutch main body B and the pinion member. The clutch portion is pushed further toward the ring gear. Therefore, the amount of movement of the clutch main body A becomes larger than before, and as a countermeasure, it is necessary to change the amount of movement of the plunger of the solenoid switch, the shape of the shift lever, etc., and a significant change in the starter design is required.

The easiest way to counter this is to install a stopper that roughly prevents the thrust movement of the roller clutch, but due to the structure of the starter, the stopper is placed inside the clutch on the shaft on the armature side where the pinion member does not slide. The thrust movement can be roughly prevented by installing it in a built-in method or by installing it in the starter structure, but in either case, there are problems in terms of installation space and miniaturization of the stopper.

Therefore, the engagement between the clutch main body B and the pinion is also a helical spline, and the clutch main body A
It was decided that the directions of the thrust force generated in the clutch main body B and the thrust force generated in the clutch main body B were made to be in opposite directions and balanced by the same force.

That is, for example, for a starter that normally rotates to the right, the helical spline between the clutch main body A and the shaft is set to be a right helical in the torsional direction. In this case, torque is transmitted from the shaft side to the clutch main body A.
, and the clutch main body A is pushed toward the ring gear. A helical spline with a right helix angle is also set between the clutch main body B and the pinion. At this time, the torque is mainly transmitted by the clutch B.
Since the force is transmitted from the to the pinion side, the clutch main body B is pushed back toward the shift lever side, while the pinion is pressed against the pinion stopper of the starter.

In this way, the clutch main body A and the clutch main body B press against each other, and when their thrusts cancel each other out, the roller clutch comes to rest in the state just before torque is transmitted, and the above-mentioned unnecessary movement is eliminated.

Therefore, by using helical splines for both the engagement between the output shaft and the clutch main body A, and the engagement between the clutch main body B and the pinion, the collision speed when the pinion and ring gear collide can be significantly reduced, the impact force can be reduced, and the structure can be improved. can be made simple and inexpensive.

As is clear from the above description, according to the starter meshing device according to the present invention, by encapsulating the buffer spring inside the inner member,
It can prevent damage to the buffer spring due to centrifugal force, and it can also absorb the kinetic energy of the clutch when the pinion gear and ring gear collide, greatly reducing the impact force at the time of collision and preventing damage to the ring gear. It is possible to obtain a product that is inexpensive and has excellent buffering efficiency.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawing is a sectional view showing an embodiment of a starter meshing device according to the present invention. 1... Motor section, 2... Armature, 3... Output shaft, 4... Helical spline, 5...
Clutch portion, 6...Clutch main body A, 7...Roller, 8...Clutch main body B, 9...Inner metal, 10...Parallel spline A, 11...Inner member, 12...Inner cover, 13... Ring-shaped stopper member, 14...Pinion gear member, 1
5... Parallel spline B, 19... Ring-shaped protrusion, 20... Clutch cover.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A rotating output shaft, a thrust moving body fitted to this shaft, a first clutch main body to which the power of the output shaft is transmitted, a second clutch main body that transmits the output to the engine side, and a connection between these clutch main bodies. a roller clutch consisting of a roller that is fitted into a wedge-shaped gap and serves as a key to transmit the power of the first clutch main body to the second clutch main body; a pinion gear that transmits the output through a clutch main body, and the second clutch main body has an inner member installed on an inner periphery of a spline that engages with a helical spline formed on the outer periphery of the pinion gear so as to be capable of thrust movement; an annular stopper member attached to the side end of the inner member on the pinion gear side and abutting the end face of the spline on the pinion gear side, and a gap between the inner periphery of the power transmission member of the inner member and the outer periphery of the output shaft; 1. A starter meshing device, characterized in that a buffer member is installed at a portion thereof to push apart an inner member and a pinion gear.