RIGID AND/OR FLEXIBLE MECHANISMS FOR TRANSMITTING RECTILINEAR AND/OR ROTARY MOVEMENT IN A SINGLE DIRECTION

Abstract

The enclosed invention is a new one way clutch where linear or rotary motion between two bodies is transmitted in only one direction by one or more links moving in one of the bodies and connected with the other by friction or positive engagement, the link(s) plays the role of a follower to the cam surface on the other body. The link(s) could be rigid or flexible or in combination of both, and its contact is insured by springs which could be separate or part of any of the mechanism bodies. The link(s) causes the two bodies to cease and move together in the driving direction, and to release in the opposite free movement direction. One of the two bodies can be omitted and replaced by a part of the using machine. Links and cam lubes could be used in pairs. If links reset is needed, flexible elements or additional cam-follower mechanism can be used to avoid impact. Higher forces and torques can be transmitted with minimum backlash, surface fatigue and maximum indexing rate and service life.

Claims

1- A mechanism to transmit the linear or rotary motion from a body to another body in only one direction, while it moves freely on the opposite direction without transmitting the motion, wherein the mechanism consists of at-least one link which could be rigid or flexible and the motion is transmitted by means of friction, enhanced friction or positive engagement, each mean can be used separately or in combination with others, and the contact is ensured by friction and/or springs.

2- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as in claim 1, wherein a link is guided in one of the two bodies and contacts the other body in such a way that the two bodies are ceased to move together in the driving directions and released in the opposite free movement directions.

3- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as in claim 2, wherein the link ensures that the two bodies are ceased to move together in the driving directions and released in the opposite free movement directions.

4- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as in claim 2, where the contact of the link with the other body interacts by friction, enhanced friction or positive engagement such that the two bodies are ceased to move together in the driving directions, and released in the opposite free movement directions.

5- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as in claim 1, wherein more links can replace the one link.

6- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as claimed in claim 5, where the links could be rigid or flexible or in combination of both.

7- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as claimed in claim 6, wherein at-least one spring can be used to insure the contact and engagement.

8- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as claimed in claim 7, wherein the springs could be separate or integrated with any of the mechanism bodies.

9- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as claimed in claim 8, wherein it is possible that a part of the machine that uses this mechanism can replace one of the mechanism bodies.

10- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as claimed in claim 4, wherein one or more links or pairs of links can be used to transmit the motion.

11- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as claimed in claim 10, wherein the number of the links pairs and cam lubes are different and the contacts are different in phase.

12- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as claimed in claim 11, where resetting the links, if needed, could be carried out by flexible members and additional cam.

13- The mechanism to transmit linear or rotary motion between two bodies in only one direction as claimed in claim 12, where resetting the links, if needed could be carried out, by additional cam and follower.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0019] Drawing (1) shows an example of using only one link to transmit the linear motion in only one direction between two bodies, and how to form the spring as an integrated part of the link.

[0020] Drawing (2) shows an example of using only one link to transmit the rotary motion in only one direction between two bodies.

[0021] Drawing (3) shows an example of using only one link to transmit the rotary motion in only one direction between two bodies where friction or enhanced friction is the motion coupling force. It also shows the case when a part of the machine in which this clutch is installed replaces one body of the clutch.

[0022] Drawing (4) shows an example of using two links mechanism to transmit the linear motion in only one direction between two bodies.

[0023] Drawing (5) shows an example of how to replace the two links in Drawing (4) by a flexible part to transmit the linear motion in only one direction between two bodies.

[0024] Drawing (6) shows an example of using three links mechanism to transmit the linear motion in only one direction between two bodies.

[0025] Drawing (7) shows an example of using pair of three links mechanism, one of the links is flexible, to transmit the rotary motion in only one direction between two bodies.

[0026] Drawing (8) shows an example of resetting the link that transmit the motion to a home position to start a new cycle of its function. In this example a flexible element (a spring) is used to gradually apply the resetting force to avoid cam and link collision impact. Close radii of link 6 and body 2 cam surface (link 6 contact surface is concave) increases the contact surface, reduces the Hertizian stresses and increases the surface life.

[0027] Drawing (9) shows another example of resetting the link that transmit the motion to a home position to start a new cycle of its function. In this example a follower is used to smoothen link start and stop resetting motion.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

[0028] One-way clutches are widely used in motion transmission and control, it can be found for example in equipments, bicycles, motor cycles and lot of machines. In this enclosed invention, the transmitted forces and torques increased with respect to the prevailing ones, especially when using its positive engagement designs. Besides, dependency on friction to cease motion transmitting element during motion transmission is reduced, the contact area can be increased, thus the surface fatigue is also reduced and hence the service life is increased. If it is used to generate continuous motion from oscillating or reciprocating ones in indexing, the indexing rate could be increase, the backlash and minimum feeding angle could be minimized.