JPH0447179B2 - - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention [Technical Field of the Invention] The present invention relates to a multi-stage clutch that transmits the rotational force of a main rotating body to a plurality of subordinate rotating bodies, and particularly relates to a multistage clutch that transmits the rotational force of a main rotating body to a plurality of subordinate rotating bodies, and in particular, This invention relates to a multi-stage clutch in which the contact of one or both of the rotating bodies can be switched by a single electromagnetic coil.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Multi-stage clutches that selectively bring a plurality of slave rotors into contact with a main rotor to transmit rotational force from the main rotor to the slave rotors are generally used in fields such as automobiles and various machine tools. Among these, in automobiles, multistage coils have conventionally been used to transmit the rotational force of the engine to engine accessories such as cooling fans and water pumps. That is, conventional engine accessories are mounted in front of the engine body and are driven via a multi-stage reclutch by rotational force extracted from the engine using a pulley or the like.

Incidentally, due to recent demands for lighter weight automobiles and more efficient use of space inside the automobile, there is a wide demand for smaller and lighter multi-stage clutches. Therefore, a multi-stage clutch may be considered in which two or more types of slave rotating bodies (auxiliary machines) are arranged coaxially, an electromagnetic coil is provided for each accessory machine, and each accessory machine is selectively operated.

However, in the multi-stage clutch as mentioned above,
Because as many electromagnetic coils as there are auxiliary machines are required to operate them, the control of each electromagnetic coil is complicated, and the failure rate due to electromagnetic coils is high.
Furthermore, there is a problem in that the presence of the electromagnetic coil hinders thorough miniaturization and weight reduction. On the other hand, by arranging a plurality of slave rotors on the same axis of the main rotor and changing the conductivity of a single electromagnetic coil, one of the slave rotors can be selectively brought into suction contact with the slave rotor. A multi-stage clutch that transmits rotational force from a main rotating body is known (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 119228/1983), but it does not have an operation mode that brings all of the multiple subordinate rotating bodies into contact with the main rotating body. It is unsuitable for applications such as a radiator cooling device where it is desired to simultaneously transmit the rotational force of the engine to a water pump as well as a cooling fan for forced cooling as described above.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was devised to effectively solve the problems of conventional multi-stage clutches.

In order to achieve such an object, the multi-stage clutch of the present invention is provided with a single electromagnetic coil in the rotor of a main rotating body which is rotatably supported on a shaft to which a first subordinate rotating body is fixed, and the shaft has a single electromagnetic coil. A first armature having a contact that is magnetically attracted in the axial direction to the side surface of the main rotor is fixed via a return spring, and a contact that is magnetically attracted to the surface of the main rotor is fixed. A second armature is rotatably supported via a return spring, the second armature is coupled to a second slave rotary body, and the current to the electromagnetic coil is applied to both the contacts of the first armature and the second armature. This configuration includes a coil current controller that can switch between a strong current that causes electromagnetic attraction of the contacts of the first armature, and a weak current that causes only the contacts of the first armature to be electromagnetically attracted.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Next, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The embodiment shown in FIG. 1 is a two-stage clutch used to drive engine accessories. In this case, the auxiliary equipment serving as the slave rotor is a cooling fan 1 (second slave rotor) used for air cooling of the radiator, and a water pump 2 used for circulating engine cooling water.
A rotor 5 rotated by an engine (not shown) via a V-belt 3 and a pulley 4 corresponds to the main rotor. The pump body 6 of the water pump 2 serves as a frame for supporting the rotor 5, the cooling fan 1, etc., and is attached to the side wall of the engine via a mounting plate 7. A shaft 8 is rotatably inserted and supported in the center of the pump body 6, and is adapted to rotationally drive a pump fan 9 fixed to one end thereof. When the pump fan 9 operates, engine cooling water flows into the pump chamber 10, the port 11, etc., and the water pump 2 operates. The rotor 5 is rotatably attached to the outer periphery of the protruding portion of the pump body 2 that pivotally supports the center portion of the shaft 8 on its inner periphery, and the pulley 4 is fixedly installed on the outer periphery of the rotor 5. There is. A large groove 12 is formed on one side of the rotor 5, and is adapted to house an electromagnetic coil 13 whose magnetic attraction force changes depending on the magnitude of the current in a non-contact manner. The electromagnetic coil 13 is fixed to the pump body 2 and connected to a coil current controller (not shown) that can switch the magnitude of the current. A slit or the like is formed on the other side of the rotor 5 to allow the lines of magnetic force from the electromagnetic coil 13 to pass through (or the rotor 5 is formed of a non-magnetic material or a paramagnetic material).
A first armature 14 for driving the shaft 8 and a second armature 15 for driving the cooling fan 1 located nearby are brought into magnetic attraction contact via contacts 16 and 17. The first armature 14 is attached near the center of the other end of the shaft 8 so as to be prevented from rotating by a key 18, and a return spring is used to pull the contact 16 in a direction that opposes the magnetic attraction force. A contact 16 is attached via 19. Further, the second armature 15 is rotatably attached to the other end of the shaft 8, and has the cooling fan 1 fixed thereon, and has a return spring 20 so as to be pulled in a direction opposing the magnetic attraction force. A contactor 17 is attached through the contactor 17. Rotor 5 other side and each contactor 16, 17
The gap between the first armature 14 and the second armature 15, which may be selectively operated (hereinafter referred to as the first armature 14)
The gap with the contact 16 is made narrower than the gap with the other contact 17. However, each contact 16,
Each return spring 1 regardless of the difference in clearance with 17.
Similar selective actuation can be set by having different spring constants for springs 9 and 20. Therefore, when the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil 13 is small, the first armature 14 is connected to the rotor 5, and when the current is large, both are connected to the rotor 5.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be described.

To completely disengage the two-stage clutch, turn the electromagnetic coil 13
Reduce the current flowing to zero. That is, the coil current controller is activated to stop supplying current to the electromagnetic coil 13. In this case, since there is no electromagnetic attraction force for each contactor 16, 17, each contactor 16, 17
does not come into contact with the rotor 5. Therefore, the rotational force of the rotor 5 is not transmitted to the first armature 14 and the second armature 15, and the water pump 2 and cooling fan 1 do not operate.

To disconnect one part of the two-stage clutch and connect the other part, a weak current is applied to the electromagnetic coil 13 by means of a coil current controller. The electromagnetic attraction force of the electromagnetic coil 13 acts on each contactor 16, 17, but since the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil 13 is small, the second armature 15
The contact 17 of the first armature 14 does not come into suction contact with the rotor 5, and the contact 16 of the first armature 14 comes into suction contact with the rotor 5. Therefore, the second armature 15 is rotated by the rotor 5, the pump fan 9 is rotationally driven via the key 18 and the shaft 8, and the water pump 2 is operated to circulate engine cooling water.

To fully engage the two-stage clutch, a strong current is applied to the electromagnetic coil 13 by means of a coil current controller.
In this case, since the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil 13 is large, not only the contact 16 of the first armature 14 but also the contact 17 of the second armature 15 come into attraction contact with the rotor 5. Therefore, the first armature 14 and the second armature 15 are rotated by the rotor 5, the water pump 2 is operated in the above-described path, and the cooling fan 1 is rotated around the shaft 8. In order to stop the operation of only the cooling fan 1 from this state, the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil 13 is switched to a low level using the coil current controller, and only the contactor 16 of the first armature 14 is brought into attraction contact with the rotor 5. It may be electromagnetic force. At this time, the contact 17 of the second armature 15 is drawn from the rotor 5 side to the second armature 15 side by the force of the return spring 20, and this state is maintained. Further, in order to stop the operation of the cooling fan 1, the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil 13 is made zero by the coil current controller. At this time, the contact 16 of the first armature 14 is moved from the rotor 5 side to the first armature 1 by the force of the return spring 19.
Return to side 4 and maintain that position.

By repeating the above operations, the water pump 2 and the cooling fan 1 can be selectively connected to the rotor 5.
In particular, if the cooling fan is stopped in order to quickly warm up the engine, the load on the fan will be reduced and fuel efficiency will be improved. Further, by switching the strength of the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil 13, both the cooling fan 1 and the water pump 2, or only the water pump 2, can be operated separately, so that the control of the electromagnetic coil 13 can be simplified. In addition, since the contact 16 of the first armature 14 is located outside the contact 17 of the second armature 15 so that a large contact area can be obtained, the cooling fan 1 with large driving torque and torque fluctuation can be used. It can be reliably driven by the rotor 5.

Note that a variable transformer, an inverter, or the like can be used as the coil current controller in the above embodiments.

Further, in the above embodiment, a case was explained in which the water pump 2 and the cooling fan 1 were used as auxiliary equipment, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the cooling fan and the generator may be used as auxiliary equipment. It can also be applied to combinations such as an oil pump, a generator and an oil pump, a water pump and a generator, etc.

Further, in the above embodiment, a case has been described in which the contacts 16 and 17 of the armatures 14 and 15 are brought into contact with the side surface of the rotor 5, but the present invention is not limited to this, and as shown in FIG. One may be brought into contact with the outer peripheral surface of the rotor 5.

Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the present invention uses each armature 14, 15 as an intermediate idler, and a plurality of auxiliary machines 21, 22 located apart from each other.
It may be possible to control the driving and idling of the motor from one place. In the figure, 23 is a crankshaft that rotates the rotor 5.

Furthermore, although the above embodiments have been described with reference to a two-stage clutch, the present invention can also be applied to clutches with three or more stages, and its application is not limited to driving auxiliary equipment of an engine.

〔Effect of the invention〕

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it exhibits the following excellent effects.

(1) Two operating modes can be selected depending on the magnitude of the current flowing through the electromagnetic coil. That is, a first operation mode in which only one of the first and second slave rotors is brought into contact with the main rotor by passing a weak current, and a first operation mode in which only one of the first and second slave rotors is brought into contact with the main rotor by flowing a strong current, and both the first and second slave rotors are brought into contact with the main rotor by passing a strong current. A second mode of operation is obtained in which the main rotor is brought into contact with the main rotating body.

(2) The above two operating modes can be switched arbitrarily. For this reason, when applied to a cooling system for an engine radiator, for example, and the water pump is the first slave rotor and the cooling fan is the second slave rotor, the engine torque is transmitted only to the water pump (the second slave rotor). 1 operation mode) to a state in which the cooling fan is also operated as needed (second operation mode).

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical cross-sectional view showing one embodiment of a multi-stage clutch according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of a main part showing another embodiment of the multi-stage clutch according to the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 7 is a side view of other essential parts showing still another embodiment of the multi-stage clutch according to the present invention. In the figure, 2 is a water pump as a first slave rotor, 5 is a main rotor, 13 is an electromagnetic coil, 14 is a first armature, 15 is a second armature coupled to the second slave rotor, 16, 17 is a contact, 1
9 and 20 are return springs.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A single electromagnetic coil is provided in the rotor of the main rotor, which is rotatably supported with respect to a shaft on which the first slave rotor is fixed, and a magnetic coil is installed in the shaft in the axial direction against the side surface of the main rotor. A first armature having a contact that is attracted to the target via a return spring is fixed, and a second armature that has a contact that is magnetically attracted to the surface of the main rotating body via a return spring is rotatable. the second armature is coupled to a second slave rotating body, and the current to the electromagnetic coil is a strong current that electromagnetically attracts both the contacts of the first armature and the second armature; A multi-stage clutch characterized by being equipped with a coil current controller that can switch between a weak current in which only the armature's contactor is electromagnetically attracted.