Wet Friction Clutch Layout for Flat Flywheel Compatibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing friction clutches for coupling motor vehicle engine drive shafts to transmission input shafts are complex and costly, requiring adaptation to stepped flywheels and involving unnecessary components, limiting their application to flat flywheels and increasing development costs.
Innovation Solution
A friction clutch design featuring a contact plate and lever element, such as a diaphragm spring, that guides laminae without a flywheel, allowing for the use of flat flywheels and enabling cost-effective production by reusing components from known clutches, with a normally engaged mechanism and wet clutch configuration for efficient torque transmission.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a friction clutch is designed to work with stepped flywheels, then it can transmit torque effectively, but it requires additional extensions in the axial direction and cannot be used with flat flywheels
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the lamina guidance function from the flywheel and relocates it to the contact plate. The contact plate now includes holders that guide the laminae, eliminating the need for the flywheel to have axial extensions. This allows the friction clutch to work with flat flywheels while maintaining effective torque transmission.
2Reliability
If a friction clutch uses a complex design with multiple components, then it can achieve reliable torque transmission, but it increases development costs and manufacturing complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the lamina guidance function with the contact plate structure by integrating holders directly into the contact plate. This consolidation reduces the number of separate components while maintaining the reliability of torque transmission through the friction surfaces.
3Temperature
If a friction clutch is designed for wet operation with fluid lubrication, then friction surfaces are lubricated and cooled, but the system requires additional fluid management components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent designs the friction clutch components, particularly the friction surfaces and holders, to be universally compatible with wet operation environments. The holders are designed to accommodate laminae that can effectively transmit torque even when lubricated, and the overall design allows the same basic structure to serve both dry and wet clutch applications without requiring specialized fluid management components.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution simplifies the friction clutch design, reduces costs, and allows for the use of flat flywheels, enhancing torque transmission capabilities and adaptability across various applications by utilizing a contact plate with multiple laminae and friction disks, while maintaining lubrication and cooling through a fluid medium.
Implementation Method 1
each friction surface being frictionally connectible to one of a plurality of friction disks of the friction clutch to transmit torque
Implementation Method 2
a fluid (for example an oil) is transported into the friction clutch, so that the components of the friction clutch (for example the friction surfaces of the laminae and the friction disks, as well as the counter plate and the contact plate) are lubricated and cooled
Data Source
AI summary
A friction clutch for coupling a drive shaft of a motor vehicle engine to a transmission input shaft of a motor vehicle transmission includes a lamina, an axially movable contact plate, and a plurality of friction disks. The lamina has a first friction surface facing in a first axial direction, and a second friction surface facing in a second axial direction, opposite the first axial direction. The contact plate has a plurality of holders arranged to hold the lamina. Each of the holders forms a positive connection with the lamina in the circumferential direction, and each of the first friction surface and the second friction surface is frictionally connectible to a friction disk to transmit torque. A first friction disk is arranged to be positioned between a counter plate and the lamina, and a second friction disk is positioned between the lamina and the contact plate.