GB848823A - Hydraulically actuated friction clutch - Google Patents

Abstract

848,823. Friction clutches; gearing for stopping and starting machinery. TWIN DISC CLUTCH CO. Nov. 7, 1957, No. 34763/57. Class 80 (2). A multi-disc friction clutch between a driving (or driven) shaft 10 and a driven (or driving) member 15 is engaged by supplying oil under a relatively high pressure to a space 24 between a flange 21 fast upon the shaft and an axiallyslidable surrounding cylinder 22, 23, 29 thereby slidden leftwards of Fig. 1, disengagement being effected by releasing the pressure in the space 24 so that oil continuously supplied at a relatively low pressure to a space 34 on the other side of the flange becomes effective to slide the cylinder 22 rightwards, a passage 38 and restriction 40 supplying oil at all times from the low-pressure clutch disengaging space 34 to the inner periphery of the friction discs which are thereby lubricated and cooled. In the form shown, the low-pressure oil for clutch disengagement is supplied through passages 56, 28, 26 to the space 24, and the high-pressure oil for clutch engagement is supplied through a pipe 52, 35 and a space 31 leading to the space 34.. In one modification, Figs. 3, 4 (not shown), a similar multi-disc friction clutch is illustrated mounted at the centre instead of at the end, of a shaft, and the oil for clutch engagement and disengagement is supplied through two pipes arranged on diametrically opposite sides of the shaft. In another modification, Fig. 6 (also not shown), the oil for clutch engagement and disengagement is supplied through central passages in the shaft, one leading from one end of the shaft and the other from the opposite end of the shaft. Oil is supplied under pressure to the clutch from a pump 42, Fig. 5, whence it is supplied to a piston valve 45 which, in the position shown, passes oil only to a pipe 47 and a pressureregulating valve 48 which maintains a relatively high pressure. A pipe 49 leads the oil off to a pipe 52 and a second pressure-regulating valve 50 which maintains a relatively low pressure, oil from the second regulating valve 50 returning via a pipe 51 to a sump 43. The pipe 52 leads to the clutch disengaging space 34 and to the inner peripheries of the friction discs. Accordingly, with the piston valve 45 in the position shown, oil is supplied at the low pressure determined by the pressure-regulating valve 50 to the space 34 &c., and the clutch is disengaged. By sliding the piston valve 45 to the right, the pump 42 is connected directly to the pipe 56 leading to the clutch-engaging space 24, to which oil is supplied at the relatively high pressure determined by the pressure-regulating valve 48.