Automotive Transmission: Clutch and Gear Box
Automotive Transmission: Clutch and Gear Box
Automotive Transmission: Clutch and Gear Box
Transmission
Clutch and Gear box
Mohan Krishna D
Transmission System
Transmission system in a car helps to transmit
mechanical power from the car engine to give kinetic
energy to the wheels. It is an interconnected system of
gears, shafts, and other electrical gadgets that form a
bridge to transfer power and energy from the engine to
the wheels. The complete set up of the system helps to
maintain the cruising speed of the car without any
disturbance to the cars performance. The oldest variant
of the transmission system in India is the manual
transmission that has undergone various modifications
and alterations to form the present day automatic
transmission.
Clutches
Clutches are useful in devices that have two rotating shafts. In these
devices, one of the shafts is typically driven by a motor or pulley,
and the other shaft drives another device. In a drill, for instance, one
shaft is driven by a motor and the other drives a drill chuck. The
clutch connects the two shafts so that they can either be locked
together and spin at the same speed, or be decoupled and spin at
different speeds.
In a car, you need a clutch because theenginespins all the time,
but the car's wheels do not. In order for a car to stop without killing
the engine, the wheels need to be disconnected from the engine
somehow. The clutch allows us to smoothly engage a spinning
engine to a non-spinning transmission by controlling the slippage
between them.
1. Positive clutch
(Dog clutch):
In the positive clutch, grooves
are cut either into the driving
member or into the driven
member and some extracted
parts are situated into both
driving and driven member.
When the driver releases
clutch pedal then these
extracted parts insert into
grooves and both driving and
driven shaft revolve together.
When he push the clutch pedal
these extracted parts come out
from grooves and the engine
shaft revolve itself without
revolving transmission shaft.
Disadvantages
2. Friction clutch:
In this type of clutches, friction force
is used to engage and disengage the
clutch. A friction plate is inserted
between the driving member and the
driven member of clutch. When the
driver releases the clutch pedal, the
driven member and driving member
of clutch, comes in contact with each
other. A friction force works between
these two parts. So when the driving
member revolves, it makes revolve
the driven member of clutch and the
clutch is in engage position.
This type of clutch is subdivided into
four types according to the design of
the clutch
Demerits
A.)Cone clutch:
It is a friction type of clutch.
As the name, this type of
clutch consist a cone
mounted on the driven
member and the shape of
the sides of the flywheel is
also shaped as the conical.
The surfaces of contact are
lined with the friction lining.
The cone can be engage and
disengage form flywheel by
the clutch pedal.
B.)Single plate
clutch:
In the single plate clutch a flywheel is
fixed to the engine shaft and a
pressure plate is attached to the gear
box shaft. This pressure plate is free
to move on the spindle of the shaft. A
friction plate is situated between the
flywheel and pressure plate. Some
springs are inserted into compressed
position between these plates. When
the clutch pedal releases then the
pressure plate exerts a force on the
friction plate due to spring action. So
clutch is in engage position. When
the driver pushes the clutch pedal it
due to mechanism it serves as the
disengagement of clutch.
C.)Multi-plate
clutch:
Multi-plate clutch is
same as the single plate
clutch but there are two
or more clutch plates
inserted between the
flywheel and pressure
plate. This clutch is
compact than single
plate clutch for same
transmission of torque.
D.)Diaphragm
clutch:
3) Hydraulic
Clutch
A.)Fluid coupling:
It is a hydraulic unit that replaces a
clutch in a semi or fully automatic
clutch. In this type of clutch there is
no mechanical connection between
driving member and driven
member. A pump impeller is bolted
on a driving member and a turbine
runner is bolted on the driven
member. Both the above units are
enclosed in a single housing filled
with a liquid. This liquid serves as a
torque transmitter form the
impeller to the turbine.
Gear Box
A gearbox is a mechanical
method of transferring
energy from one device to
another and is used to
increase torque while
reducing speed. Torque is
the power generated
through the bending or
twisting of a solid material.
In a situation where multiple
speeds are needed, a
transmission with multiple
gears can be used to
increase torque while
slowing down the output
speed.
1) Manual Gear
Box
In this type of gear box different speed
ratio or gear ratio is selected by the
driver manually. Some special skill of
driving is required to operate this type
of gear box. According to their design,
this type of gear box is subdivided into
three types.
--- a) Sliding mesh gear box:
It is that gear box in which gears on the
splined main shaft are moved right or
left for meshing them with appropriate
gears on the counter shaft for obtaining
different speed. This type of gear box
derives its name from the fact that the
gears are meshed by sliding. One
disadvantage of this type of gear box is
that, special skill is required to operate
this gear box
A)Epicycle Gear
Box:
This type of gear box uses no sliding dogs
or gears to engage but different gear
speeds are obtained by merely tightening
brake bands on gear drum. It consists of a
ring gear annular wheel, sun gear and
planet gears with carrier. In order to obtain
different speeds any one of these units can
be held from rotation by means of brake
bond. The ring gear contains teeth on its
inner circumference and it is surrounded by
a brake band. The brake band is operated
by a gear stick or lever to grip the ring gear
and hold its movement. The sun gear is
attached to the clutch shaft thus moves
along with the movement of engine
crankshaft. The planet gears are in constant
mesh with both the sun gear and ring gear
and are free to rotate on their axes carried
by the carrier frame which in turn is
connected to the driver shaft.
B) Hydraulic torque
converter: