US1954418A - Speed changing and coupling device - Google Patents

Description

April 10,1934. E. LEY

I SPEED CHANGING AND COUPLING DEVICE Filed Oct. 29, 1952 Patented Apr. 10, 1934 UNITED STATES SPEED CHANGING AND COUPLING DEVICE Emil Ley, Muttenz; near Basel, Switzerland Application October" 29, 1932, Serial No. 640,283

' In Switzerland October 30, 1931 1 Claim. (Cl. 192-61) The present invention relates to a hydraulic speed changing and coupling device of the kind wherein the rotating driving element is-provided with a'drum containing a liquid body affecting,

5 upon rotation of the drum, 1:. ring like form, whilst the drum encloses liquid feeding rotary gears which are in operative relation with the element to be driven and the purpose of which is to es tablish a circulation of the liquid, these liquid feeding rotary gears 'being located within an inner housing and being controlled in such a way by a controlling mechanism on the latter capable to throttle or not the circulation of the liquid so as to transmit, or not,'the driving motion of the driving element to the element to bedriven.

The invention concerns a particular form of said controlling mechanism. According to this in vention, the controlling mechanism comprises for each liquid feeding gear two liquid channels with-'- in said housing, one for to and the said gear,

the same transverse plane, but

the admission or liquid;

their outer openeings axially displaced to one another on the outer,

periphery of said housing, in combination withxan axially slidable controlling periphery of said housing,..arranged w as; to.

throttle more or less the liquid delivery channel;

1 whilst keeping the admission channel perma- 3 nently open, and having the form 0151a housing. enclosing cup? with end openings for allowing axial circulation of liquidlarou'nd saidvalve. In order that the invention may be mo'rer. fully understood, there will now be described, byway of example, and with reference to the accompanying drawing "a. preferred. embodiment of the invention.

Figure 1 is a. partial longitudinal section through the device:

Figure 2 is a cor responding: transverse section according to line A .--B oi. Figure 1 and Figure 3 is a to: a view of device. a p a designates th' a rotating driving shaft and b designates the rc itating driven shaft. Securely mounted on the s .haft a is a drum 0 made of two pieces. The dru m a contains a liquid, ior instance oil, whicl h, upon rotation of the um, forms a ring on the inner wall of the latter by virtue oi the .081 ntrifugal force. Provided in the drum 0 is a. or rcular member (1, having in the present case th ree cavities e, for instance. which are uniformly f iistributedabout the rotating axis of the device. In each or thecavities d thereis a toothed liqui a feeding gear Lwhich is rotatably other for thdelivery of liquid fromz having their inner openings within" valve on the outer a certain part of the mounted in the oppositely situated walls of the d. Each of the cavities e is in open 7 member communication with two channels g, it, having their inner openings within the same transverse plane and terminating athifierent points of the periphery of the member (I. The channel 9 serves for the admission and the .channel' It for the delivery of liquid, whichduring operation of the device flows out of the circular liquid body in the drum 0, by rotation of the-.feeding gear j J about its own axis in a direction indicated by the arrow 2: through the channel etc the gear 1.. which feeds it along its peripheryto the channel: h, where the' liquid will join again the circular. liquid body.

The outer openings g of the oil? admission channels 9 of the three cavities e are uniformly distributed on the periphery of the member 111 within "one and the same transverseplane; in.- a similar. flianner, the openings h of the delivery channels it: of the three cavities eaare also-uni.-

formly distributed on the periphery 1 0i the member zdg. but theyare arranged in a transverse planewhi'ch is axiallydisplaced witln respect to the planementioned before. 'Whilstithe openings, 9 ofthe" admission channels 9 artsconstantly open; tlhe'operrings h of the delivery channels it can be partly or entirely closed. To this end, there: is provided a circular controlling valve 11 on the periphery of .the member d, this valve being slid able in the axial direction and? adjustable in position by means of a.controlling lever is which is. connected to a sleeve i provided on the valve 1' and extending laterall r: out of the drum; c, as shown inFigure' l. The oilfeeding gears f are in engagcment by their teeth with a common toothed wheel 7 m, which is keyed on the shaft b, to be driven. The sliding valve thas the formv of a cup with openings i in its bottom for allowing axial circulation of liquid around the valve, which may be of some advantage for cooling purposes.

The operation of the above described device is as follows: I,

In the illustrated position of the valve 1', the openings h? 01' the deliverychannels h arelehtirely open. I

When the drum 0 is rotated by the shaft a, the liquid in the drum 0 will assume the form of a ring "o,'which will cover the openings 9 k provided. of course, that there is a sufficiently large 1 quantity of liquid in the drum 0, whilst the feed-' ing gears 1, which rotate as planetary elements around the axis of rotation of the drum, by their rolling ofton the common toothed wheel m, will continuously shift a certain quantity of liquid through the corresponding channels g, h from one place-to another; The toothed wheel m and the shaft b are at rest, which means that the device is in its running light or no-load condition. If now the valve 2' is shifted in such a manner that it will cover more or less the openings h of: the delivery channels h, the circulation of the liquid through the channels g, h will be more or less throttled. As a result thereof, the rotation of the feeding gears 1 about their own axis will be braked at a corresponding rate, and inasmuch as these planetary gears I continue to rotate with the drum 0, they will exert a corresponding torque upon the toothed wheel m, so that the latter will be rotated with a peripheral speed corresponding to the throttling rate of the liquid circulation, this peripheral speed being for the moment still smaller than the rotating speed of the driving shaft a, so that the driving movement of the shaft a will be transmitted at a certain speed changing rate to the shaft b. I

When finally the valve i is shifted so far that it will entirely cover the openings h of the delivery channels h, the circulation of the liquid in the feeding gears f is completely stopped, so that the-latter no longer rotate about their own axis. The gears f now drive the toothed wheel m together with the shaft b in the same way as a coupling, with a rotating speed which nearly corresponds to the rotating speed of the shaft a. The

[device is in a direct drive condition.

It is clearly evident, from .the foregoing, that by displacement of the controlling valve 1' any desired speed changing rate between the driving shaft and the shaft to bedriven can be obtained,

the rotating speed of the driving shaft being thus transmitted to the shaft to be driven in a smooth continuous way and not by steps.

Instead of the three liquid feeding gears only one or two, or more than three could be provided in the device. The toothed feeding gears can also be replaced by other rotating feeding gears, for instance by winged gears or the like.

The liquid which may be heated on its circulation in the drum 0, may cool down on the rotating peripheral wall of the latter exposed to the outer air. The drum could,"of course, be provided with cooling ribs or with special cooling means.

The described device may also advantageously be used as a simple coupling to be combined with the usual speed change gear in auto-cars.

What I claim is:

In a hydraulic speed changing and coupling device of the kind comprising a driving element, a driven element, a liquid containing drum fixed to the driving element, a housing within said drum, arranged so as to dip into the ring of liquid formed within the drum when being rotated, at least one liquid feeding rotary gear located in said housing and having a cooperating toothed member, fixed to the driven element, a mechanism for controlling the flow of liquid through said liquid feeding gear, comprising two liquid channels within said housing, one for the admission of liquid to and

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