Rotary shafts – gudgeons – housings – and flexible couplings for ro – Coupling accommodates drive between members having... – Tripod coupling
Patent
1997-09-09
1999-11-23
Lillis, Eileen Dunn
Rotary shafts, gudgeons, housings, and flexible couplings for ro
Coupling accommodates drive between members having...
Tripod coupling
464132, 464905, F16D 3205
Patent
active
059891246
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a tripod type constant velocity universal joint which is applicable to front-wheel drive vehicles and others.
BACKGROUND ART
In front-wheel drive vehicles, as a constant velocity universal joint for transmitting torque from a drive shaft to front wheels at a constant velocity, there has been taken a joint of a tripod type as shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B. In this tripod type, a tripod member 4 has three radially protruding trunnions 11, which carry rollers 13 respectively rotatably fitted through rolling elements 12 over cylindrical outer circumferential surfaces of the trunnions 11, is inserted into an outer member 1 having three cylindrical track grooves 2 formed in an inner surface of and extending axially of the outer member 1. Each of the rollers 13 is accommodated in the corresponding track groove 2 so that it may travel along the track groove 2 rotating about an axis of the trunnion with an outer circumferential surface in engagement with one of a pair of side walls of the track groove 2, which walls provide roller guide surfaces 3 opposing circumferentially of the outer member 1.
In cases where as shown in FIG. 9 the transmission of torque is made in a state that the outer member 1 and the tripod member 4 make a working or operating angle .theta. with respect to each other, each of the rollers 13 and one of the roller guide surfaces 3 of the corresponding track groove 2 come into an obliquely intersecting relation to each other as shown in FIG. 10. In this case, although the roller 13 tends to roll and move in a direction indicated by an arrow a in FIG. 9, because the track groove 2 has a cylindrical configuration parallel to the axial direction of the outer member 1, the roller 13 results in moving while undergoing restriction. Accordingly, the roller 13 slips in relation to the roller guide surface 3 so that the evolution of heat occurs and an axial induced thrust takes place. This induced thrust causes the occurrence of vibration of a vehicle body and the generation of noises, and hence the more reduced induced thrust is desirable.
For a tripod type constant velocity universal joint which is capable of reducing the aforesaid induced thrust to a certain extent, there has been known a two-story construction type comprising a combination of an inner ring and an outer ring as a roller (U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,270). For instance, as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, in this type of joint, an inner ring 18 is rotatably fitted through rolling elements 12 over a cylindrical outer circumferential surface of a trunnion 11 of a tripod member 4 while an outer ring 19 is rotatably fitted over an outer circumferential surface of the inner ring 18, thus producing a two-story construction. The inner ring 18 has a true-spherical outer circumferential surface 18a with its center on the axis of the trunnion 11, and a cylindrical inner circumferential surface 19a of the outer ring 19 is rotatably fitted over the true-spherical outer circumferential surface 18a. The outer ring 19 is accommodated in the track groove 2 of the outer member 1 so that it may travel in the axial direction of the outer member 1 rolling on a roller guide surface 3 of the track groove 2. In the case that the transmission of torque is made in a state where the outer member 1 and the tripod member 4 make a working angle as shown in FIG. 12, the inner ring 18 is inclined with respect to the outer ring 19, where the inner ring 18 relatively shifts downwardly in FIG. 12 in relation to the cylindrical inner circumferential surface 19a of the outer ring 19. Owing to the occurrence of the relative movement between the inner and outer rings 18, 19, the outer ring 19 is guided along roller guide surfaces 3 of the outer member 1 while maintaining a position parallel to the axial direction of the outer member 1, with the result that it correctly rolls on the roller guide surface 3 with less sliding friction. Thus, the sliding resistance is reducible to suppress the generation of the induced thrust.
In addition, as ano
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Goto Tatuhiro
Nagatani Haruo
Ozawa Masahiro
Saito Tsuyoshi
Lillis Eileen Dunn
NTN Corporation
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