US1549983A - Automatically-releasable driving means for laundry machinery and the like - Google Patents

Description

Aug. 18, 1925.

J.-'r. HUME AUTOMATICALLY RELEASABL DRIVING MEANS FOR LAUNDRY MACHINERY ND THE LIKE 3 Sheetsv-Sheet 1 originan Filed Nov. 2;1922

Il PIIIIII ZV//A Aug. 1s, 1925. 1,549,983

J. T. HUME vAUTOMATIGALLY RELEASABLE DRIVING IEANS FOR LAUNDRY MACHINERY A NDV THE LIKE original Filed Nov. 2. 1922 smarts-sheet a' `iii iHH/00 6/1 40" ///il 62 1i i J Huw/? J5 W J. 1 ,HuME

AUTOMATICALLY RELEASABLE DRIVING MEANS FOR LAUNDRY MACHINERY AND THE LVIKE original Filed Nov. 1922 .5,6 63

Aug. 18, 1925.

y lnz/enor: AJohn T. Hu/m6 '@of-ilgumm mi Patented Aug. 18, 1925.

. UNITED ySTTES 1,549,983 PATENT' OFFICE.

.ronn r. Home, or CHICAGO, rrirrnors, assrenon 'ro Enmarcar MACHINE COMPANY,`

F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION 0F ILLINOIS.

AUTOMATICALLY-RELEASABLE DRIVING MANS FOR' LAUNDRY' MACHINERY AND THE LIKE.

Original application led November 1922, Serial No. 593,515. Divided and this application Bled April` 13,1323. Serial No. 632,342.

To all whom 'it may concern.'

Be it known that ll, JOHN T. HUME, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of t Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatically-Releas-- A eneral object of my invention is tO provi e power transmittlng means automatically operatable under such overload conditions to sever the' operating connection between the drivin element and the driven element of the tram; and a further object is to provide such mechanism in a form particularly adapted for convenient embodiment in power-driven laundry machinery. Other objects of my invention are to provide simple, eicient, durable and reliable mechanism susceptible of facile production and assema@ bly for quantity manufacture and ease of maintenance and repair, and other objects will become apparent toflthose skilled in the art from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein .I have illustrated a single embodiment of my invention incorporated in a washing machine drive. To these ends my invention consistsin the construction, combinations, and arrangement of parts hereinafter more fully set forth and c aimed.

In the drawings Fig. l is an end elevation, with parts broken away, showing a washing machine and wringer actuated by driving mechanism embodying my invention; Fig. 2

t5 is a horizontal section through the lowerv reach of the gear-housing, with parts in elevation; Fig. 3 is a vertical section on line 3-3 of Fig. 2; Fig. i is a section on line iL-4: of Fig. 2; Figs. 5 and 6 are views genlitt erally similar to Fig. 4: but showing the parts in diderent ositions of operation; Fig. 7 is an .enlargedP sectional view showing the worm, worm wheel and housing arrzanige-1 ment; and Fig. 8 is a reduced front elevation of a fragment of the machine.

The general construction of laundry machine herein illustrated corresponds with` that shown in my co-pending application' rotatable to permit the wringer to be swung `to different positions about a vertical axis. `30 lndicates the motor shaft, connectable through cooperating parts to a power shaft unit 31, generally horizontally arranged beneath the washing machine, and connected by approprlate gearing 32 to the upright line shaft 33 that drives the wringer gearin 26 as above stated. Preferably all of the drive-parts are housed, and the housing, generally indicated at 36, is normally rigld with the frame of the machine so that it may give adequate support to various members of the drlve. lIn general this housin comprises a horizontal tubular reach 37 or the power-shaftunit, terminating in a gear box 38; a vertical reach or standard 39, the base of which is bolted to and forms a cover for the gearbox 38 and the upper end of which receives the neck 28 of the gear housing 28; this -vertical yreach having a gear box and enlargement l0 for the cylinder-reversing gearing,'covered as at 4l and connected by lateral reach 4:2, which is end-closed as at d3, with a further gear housing ad for the cylinder drive.

If too heavy a load is imposed on the main drive shaft, as by breakage of running parts or clogging of mechanisms driven from the line shaft 33, the motor 22 should not be stopped but kept free to run, and this I preferably accomplish by complete disconnection of the motor from the broken, clogged, or overloaded driven element. Therefore ll provide, in the driving train and preferably in 'mounted in a swinging housing 28 which is the power shaft unit close .to the motor, a torque-responsive positive release mechanism which, when the load on the motor shaft becomes too great, will automatically operate to disconnect the motor completely from its normal mechanical connection with the line shaft 33 and preferably will maintain such 'disconnection until the device is reset inclosed or connected relation. Such automatic release mechanism l provide in the form generally indicated at 45, Fig. 2.

The motor shaft 30 finds 'effective continuation in clutch-shaft 50, and, through the elutch of the release mechanism 45 1t may drive the gear shaft 51. Preferably a universal joint 52 of suitable construction connects shafts 30 and 50 outside of the lower reach 37 of the housing, screw-cap 53 closing the end orifice of the housing through which the housing-contained shafting may be withdrawn. A thrust-collar 54 ydetachably secured in the housing gives bearing to the shaft and positions one disc-head of a positive clutch 55, the tooth or teeth 55a of which may coact with the tooth or teeth 55b of a similar disc-head on gear shaft 51. rlihe coacting faces of the clutch teeth are preferably slightly beveled so that the driven clutch member may easily escapefrom the driving clutch member when shaft 51 is moved axially forward as shown in Figs. 5 and 6. Gear shaft 51 is so mounted as to permit the sliding disengagement of the clutched surfaces. At its rear end it finds bearing in a sliding sleeve 56, and at its forward end it is slidably supported in a bracket 57 cast in the housing. Between these bearings the shaft has a worm 58 to drive (counterclockwise in Fig. 2) the line-shaft worm gear 59, as one specifically desirable provision of a gear structure 32.

As a desirable means for imposing definite resistance to the torque-responsive opening of the clutch 55, and also for giving a snap-action on the opening and a positive maintenance of the clutch in opened condition .until it is manually reset, I make the following provision: Rack 61 on the shiftable sleeve 56 engages a pinion 62 which is vertically disposed inbearings in the housing 37, the pinion-arbor carrying a handle 63 (Fig. 3) conveniently located for 'manual operation. At its lower end the pinion-arbor carries a lever 64, horizontally vibratable and connected to a toggle-link 65, the opposite end of which is connected to a spring-block 66 that slides in a chambered bearing-stud 67 and is constantly pressed outward by a spring 68, the tension of which is adjustable by the movement of a bearing screw 69.

The action of this torque-responsive release means is fully shown in Figs. 2, 5

and 6. Normally, the clutch 55 stands fully engaged, and normally the resistance of toggle spring 68 working through the toggle-levers in the closed position shown in Fig. 2 suffices to hold the clutch fully closed. When the resistance, or load, opposing movement of worm gear 59 in its counterclockwise direction of rotation (Fig. 2) becomes sufficiently high, however, the worm 58, carrying the sleeve 56, advances axially rotating ,the pinion 62 of the releasing mechanism by. reason of the movement of rack 61 on the stated sleeve 56. 0f course the rotation of pinion 62 must be eifected against the increasing pressure of spring 68 until the station shown in Fig. 5 is reached, where the toggle 64-65 passes dead center. As soon aspdead center is passed, the action of spring 68 becomes effective to augment the clutch-opening tendency, and the spring throws the toggle levers to the position shown in Fig. 6, snapping the clutch fully open and holding it there. Thus, with a very short axial movement and a very compact construction of the parts, l am able to effect both a very positive clutch engagement for normal operation and a very positive release and maintenance of the clutch in open position under strain-conditions that are accurately settable by suitable adjustment of the tension screw 69 for the spring 68.

Of course it is desirable that the large worm gear 59 be accurately positioned, and in the gear case 38 a stepped bearing 71 may be provided, carried on ribs 72 aording a centralizing bearing-hub 73 that fits into a recess in the worm wheel, this hub also forming a bottom bearing for the upright line shaft 33 which makes splineengagement with the gear 59 so that the shaft may be withdrawn vertically from theI stepped bearing and the gear. Thus it will be seen that all of the parts referred to are readily removable from the housing structure.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that while I have herein described in detail a particular embodiment of my invention for purposes of full disclosure thereof, and some of the detail features of which I may claim for their specific advantages, still in the broader aspects of my invention many changes in details of construction and arrangement of parts may be made without departure from the spirit of the invention and within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

'1. The combination of a prime mover, a load-carrying structure, a worm gear constantly connected for driving the load-carrying structure, an axially-shiftable clutchshaft having a worm engaging said worm gear and having a toothed clutch member, a shaft connected with the prime mover and having a toothed clutch member positively engageable with the first said clutch member, an axially slidable sleeve in which said .clutch shaft is mounted, said sleeve being provided with rack-teeth, a pinion meshing with said rack, and a spring-pressed toggle mechanism acting on said pinion, substantially as described.

2. The combination of a prime mover having a shaft, a load-carrying structure to be" driven, a clutch-shaft aligning with the motor shaft, positive clutch members interposed between said two shafts and havingbeveled coacting faces, one of said clutch members being axially movable away from the other under sufficient torque, a rack axially movable with said clutch member, a pinion operatable by said rack, a lever on said pinion, a spring-pressed toggle link normally holding said lever in one limit of movement and arranged to snap over past dead-center to throw said lever positively to another i limit of movement and thereby positively separate the axially movable clutch member from its fellow. 3. The combination of'a prime mover having a shaft, a load-'carrying structure to be driven, a clutch-shaft aligning with the motor shaft and axially movable with respect thereto, confronting positive clutch members on the ends of said respective shafts 'having beveled coacting faces, and means normally acting to resist movement of the relatively movableshaft away from the motor shaft comprising a spring-pressed toggle mechanism and operative connections between said toggle mechanism and the axially movable shaft, Vsaid toggle mechanism having its levers arranged in approximatev parallelism tothe movable shaft.

JOHN T. HUMEL

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