US1357756A - Power-transmission mechanism - Google Patents

Description

UNITED sTATEs PATENT OFFICE.

ROMEO L. WTLLTAM'SON, or MOUNT VERNON, OHIO, AssIGNoR 'ro THE WILLIAMSON HYDRAULIC lMACHINE COMPAANY, OF MOUNT VERNON, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF.

OHIO.

T o all whom t may concern Be it known that I, ROMEO L. WILLIAMSON, a citizenA of the United States, residing at Mount Vernon, in the county of Knox and l State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Power-Transmission Mechanism, of which the\following 1s a specification. c

This invention relates to power transmission mechanism and is directed to the general typerdisclosed in my copending application Serial Number 205,010. f

In the present case, I have shown amaterially improved structure for accomplishing results similar to that described and claimed in my copending application, the prmclple of operation in both cases being of a very similar nature. In this application, one object of the invention resides in what may be termed the drivin head structure whereby the driven shaft erives its rotary motion from the driving shaft. In this case, the pistons are shapedand arranged to bear d1- rectly upon the driving head. Also, another novel featurev resides in the arrangement of valves governing the admission of liquid from the low to the high pressure compartments. n

A further object of the invention residesl in the novel lstructure and cooperation with the remaining parts of the means for controlling the rate of flow from the high pressure compartment to the low pressure compartment whereby the ratio of speed variation is directly determined.

The preferred embodiment of my invention is shown in the'accompanying sheet of drawings in whichsimilar characters of ref.

erence designate which- Figure 1 is a central longitudinal section taken through my improved-...transmission mechanism, and

. Fig. 2 is a cross section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. l and looking in the direction of the arrows.

In this application, just as in my former corresponding partsy and in applications, I employA a casingemember vor liquid confining member 1 which is formed to include a low pressure compartment 2 and a high pressure compartment 3. This casing 1 is rigidly mounted upon the driving shaft 4 which may be connected` 'directly with an en ine or any other suitable source of power wIiile the driven shaft 5 is capable Specification of Letters Patent.

POWER-TRANSMISSION MEcHAivIsM. i

Patented Nov. 2, 1920.

Application led November 8, 1918. Serial No. 261,732.

- a great measure upon the amount of work the driving structure is required to do and the smoothness with which it is performing its function. In the present case, the high pressure compartmenty is shown as consisting of a plurality of passages 8 and 9, the former connecting the various cylinders so that all are in communication with each other and they latter leading to a central discharge opening 10 whereby the high pressure oil may be returned through suitable valve mechanism to the low pressure compartment. It will be understood that while it is necessary that eachl cylinder should have a means of communication with the discharge opening 10, the specific arrangement may take any one of a number of forms, that shown in Fig. 2 being particularly desirable. Each of the cylinders is lined with a cylinder sleeve 11 carryin a valve 12 at its high pressure end as is il ustrated particularly in F ig. l. In this' figure, it will be lnoted that the valves 12 permit the How of liquid from the cylinders into the high pressure compartment and are seated by means of springs 13 encircling the valve stems and bearing against a pin 14 at one end and against the bearing member 15 at their opposite ends. These bearing members are .each provided with a plurality of openings 16 permitting the flow of liquid from the Each cylinder is provided with a piston 17 open at one end and preferably closedV at its opposite end with a spherical surface such as shown at 18. A valve 19 is located in the bottom of each piston to permit the admission of oil from the low pressure compartment into the cylinder on the out stroke of the piston butv which remains closed during the instroke of the piston at which time the valve 12 may be permitted to open to force the loil into the high pressure com Dartment. The manner of moua-:ing the cylinders to the high pressure compartment.

valves 19 and the springs for seating them is practically identical with that described in connection with the valves 12, it being understood that the valves 12 are carried directly by the cylinder sleeves while the valves 19 are carried directly by the pistons. in order that the liquid from the low pressure compartment may. have access to the interior of the pistons, the latter are provided with a plurality of openings 20 which lead into their interior beneath the valves 19 as shown." These pistons are further forced out of their cylinders bythe action of the springs 21, their inward movement being caused by the driving head struc-ture carried by the endof the driven shaft `5 and their inward movement being also resisted by the volume of oil contained in the high pressure compartment.

This driving head structure is shown as comprising 'a casting 21 keyed to the driven shaft 5 as shown at 43. The rear l end ofthe casting 21 is finished sothat it will lie in a plane located at right angles to the driven shaft and is caused to bear against a thrust bearing 22, the wearing plates "23 and 24 being placed in the posi tion to permit the easy operation of this bearing to eliminate excess loss of power.

lt will be understood that this thrust bearing operates in the usual and well know/'nA manner. At its opposite side, this casting 21 is finished so that its face lies at an angle other than a right angle with respect to the driven shaft and is likewise provided with a wearing plate 25 which is rigidly lsecured thereto to cooperate with va roller bearing shown generally at 26. The opposite face plate for this bearing 27 )is not secured to the hub 28 of the casting 21 but is capable of free rotation thereon so that it may rotate independently of the rotation of the casting 21.

The driven shaft 5v is shown as lbeing centrally bored at 29 to permit the'passare -l `of a valve operating rod 30 therethroug this rod being packed in connection vwith the driven shaft by meansj of a packing structure shown at 31. is further hollowed out at its inner end as shown at 32 and is also mounted in connection with the casing member 1 by means of a pair of sets of roller bearings 44 and" 45, these being provided to reduce the loss of power to a minimum. This hollowportion 32 alines with a correspondingly hollow portion 33 in the center of the casing 1 as shown. It is in these two hollowed portions that the valve 34 for controlling` the rate of flow of the liquid` from the high pressure to the low pressure compartment is located. This valve structure comprises a liner member 35 rigidlyv secured to the casing 1 and provided with a plurality of openings 36 of a size to gradually increase vThis driven shaft in sectional area from the left of Fig. 1 to' the right. W'ithin' this liner member 35 there operates the main valve sleeve 37 which sleeve is open at its left hand end and is connected as shown at 38 to the operating rod 30 at its opposite end. Adjacent the connection 38 are a plurality of openings 39 which lead into the hollow portion32 of the driven shaft and communication is had from this point directly into the low pressure compartment by means of the openings 40 in the driven shaft itself and the .openings 41 in the hub 28 of the casting 21', these latter sets of openings aliniiig with cach other as shown in Fig.

rThe operation of my improved transmission mechanism is asfollows. lt is assumed that the structure has been in operation and that it has been properly filled with liquid such as oil and during its operation that the high pressure compartment has been completely filled. Under these conditions, the piston on the extreme upper lhalf of the mechanism will be inits extreme lower position and the corresponding piston on the lower half will be in its extreme outward position. The intermediate pistons will be on their way in ori-one side and on their way out on the other. If the valve 37 is in the position shown in Fig. 1, it will be impossible for those pistons on the one side of the casing which are being urged inwardly to be moved in such direction and consequently the ends of these pistons form a direct grip on the driving head structure on the end of the driven shaft to rotate this driven shaft at the'same speedfof rotation as the driving shaft. However, should the possible because the inclination of the driv-A ing head tends to force, one-half of the total number of pistons into their cylinders which forces the oil contained in these pistons into the high pressure compartment. It will be understood that these pistons have been filled with oil on their outward stroke inA which case their valves 12 would be closed and the suction created would open the valves 19. This then permits a restricted circulation of oil from the high pressure to the low pressure" compartment depending upon the amount of opening of the valve 37.

The cylinders as a whole rotate at the same rate of speed as the driving .shaft 4 because they are connected therewith but because of the inward yielding of their pistons during such rotation, the driven shaft is rotated at a reduced rate of speed. The pistons themselves bear very tightly against the plate 27 because of the pressure of the oil in the high pressure compartment and also because of the inclination at which this plate is set. lhile the pistons are not mechanically connected to this plate, there is no relative movement between them because of the pressure of the pistons against the plate and therefore this plate also always-rotates at the same rate of speed as the drive shaft but the castinoA 2l is rotated at a slower speed because of the gradual yielding of the pistons already mentioned. This is permitted by the functioning of the roller bearing 2G which is mounted on the hub' 28 to rotate i. thereon or to oat thereon. During the period that the driven shaft rotates at the same over the inner surface of the plate 27 and at 'the same time they are bodily'rotated about the driven shaft as a center an'amount corresponding to the reduction in speed.' 'Ihe same Iaction takes place in regard to the thrust bearing 22. p

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying sheet of drawings, it will'be apparent that -I have provided a type of transmission mechanism which is very efficient in voperation and which provides for an indefinite number of speeds between the driving and driven shaft ranging from a dead lock between the two to a complete .release between the two dependin upon the amount of opening of the valve 3 The smoothness with "which this variation in speed is attained is dependent -in a certain degree upon the number of cylinders and pistons used. It is 'preferable to have more than one piston carry. the entire turning load)or torque when the top and bottom'pistons are in the positions illustratedin the drawings. Therefore, I have shown the entire mechanism as comprising 8 cylinders and pistons although this number is not absolutely necessary. Oil enters the cylinders from the low pressure compartment 2 through the openings 20 and through the valves 19. From there it is forced into the high pressure compartment as the pistons are moved inwardly by passage through the valves 12 from where it passes through the various passagewaysS and 9 to the center opening l0 and the hollow portion 33. litt this point it-encounters the main controller valve mechanism 37 and if this valve is open, it passes through the openings 36 to the interior of the valve 37 from where it is permitted to enter the hollow portion 32 and the driven shaft through the openings ,39. From this point, centrifugal force will throw it into the low pressure compartment by passage through the openings 40 and 4l. If desired, the entire casing structure may s erve as a 'liy wheel and in the case of an automobile, it may be provided with a plurality of teeth 42 to coperate with the starting mechanism. r

1lv/Vhat I claim is:

In a transmission mechanism of the character described, the combination with a driving and a driven shaft, of means for forming a driving connection between said shafts comprising a casing member rigidly carried by the driving shaft and divided into high and low pressure compartments, a plurality of cylinders interposed between said compartments and disposed in an array around said .driving shaft to be parallel therewith, said cylinders being in communication with each other by means of said high pressure compartment, said high pressure compartment leading into a longitudinal central passage located in said casing, a regulating valve in said passage `governing the rateof low of liquid from the high.

to" the low pressure compartment, said driven shaft having a central longitudinal passage therethrough, an operating rod for said valve passing through the longitudinal passage ofsaid shaft, pistons movable in `said cylinders, and means carried by the Ydriven shaft for coperation with said pistons and' arranged to successively move them into their respective cylinders upon a relative rotative movement between shafts.

In testimony whereof I aiiX my signature.

ROMEO L. WILLIAMSON.

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