Clutch

Clutch

Clutch is a device which is used in the transmission system of automobile to engage and disengage the engine to the transmission or gear box. It is located between the transmission and the engine. When the clutch is engaged, the power flows from the engine to the rear wheels in a rear-wheel-drive transmission and the vehicle moves. When the clutch is disengaged, the power is not transmitted from the engine to the rear wheels and vehicle stops even if engine is running.

It works on the principle of friction. When two friction surfaces are brought in contact with each other and they are united due to the friction between them. If one is revolved the other will also revolve.

The friction depends upon the surface area contact. The friction surfaces are so designed that the driven member initially slips on driving member when initially pressure is applied. As pressure increases the driven member is brought gradually to speed the driving member.

The three main parts of clutch are:

·        Driving member

·        Driven member

·        Operating member

The driving member consists of a flywheel mounted on the engine crank shaft. The flywheel is bolted to cover which carries a pressure plate or driving disc, pressure springs and releasing levers. Thus the entire assembly of flywheel and cover rotates all the times. The clutch housing and the cover provided with openings dissipate the heat generated by friction during the clutch operation.

The driving member consists of a disc or plate called clutch plate. It is free to slide length wise on the splines of the clutch shaft. It carries friction materials on both of its surfaces when it is gripped between the flywheel and the pressure plate; it rotates the clutch shaft through splines.

The operating members consists of a foot pedal, linkage, release or throw-out bearing, release levers and springs necessary to ensure the proper operation of the clutch.

Now the driving member in an automobile is flywheel mounted on crank shaft, the driven member is the pressure plate mounted on transmission or gear box input shaft. Friction surfaces or clutch plates is placed between two members.

Types of Friction Materials:

The friction materials of the clutch plate are generally of 3 types:

·        Mill Board Type

·        Molded type

·        Woven type

Mill Board type friction materials mainly include asbestos material with different types of impregnates.

Molded type friction materials are made from a matrix of asbestos fiber and starch or any other suitable binding materials. They are then heated to a certain temperature for moulding in dies under pressure. They are also made into sheets by rolling, pressing and backs till they are extremely hard and dense. Metallic wires are used sometimes to increase wear properties.

Woven types facing materials are made by impregnating a cloth with certain binders or by weaving threads of copper or brass wires covered with long fiber asbestos and cotton. The woven sheets treated with binding solution are baked and rolled.

Properties Of Good Clutching:

·        Good Wearing Properties

·        High Resistance to heat

·        High coefficient of friction

·        Good Binders in it

Operation Of Clutch:

When the clutch pedal is pressed through pedal movement, the clutch release bearing presses on the clutch release lever plate which being connected to clutch release levers, forces these levers forward. This causes the pressure plate to compress pressure springs, thus allowing it to move away from the clutch driven plate. This action releases the pressure on the driven plate and flywheel, the flywheel is now free to turn independently, without turning the transmission.

When the clutch pedal is released, reverse action takes place i.e. the driven plate is again forced against the flywheel by the pressure plate- because of the force exerted by pressure springs. The pressure plate will keep on pressing the facings of driven plate until friction created becomes equal to the resistance of the vehicle. Any further increase in pressure will cause the clutch plate and the transmission shaft to turn along with flywheel, thus achieving vehicle movement.

1.Single Clutch Plate:

It is the most common type of clutch plate used in motor vehicles. Basically it consists of only one clutch plate, mounted on the splines of the clutch plate. The flywheel is mounted on engine crankshaft and rotates with it. The pressure plate is bolted to the flywheel through clutch springs, and is free to slide on the clutch shaft when the clutch pedal is operated. When the clutch is engaged the clutch plate is gripped between the flywheel and pressure plate. The friction linings are on both the sides of the clutch plate. Due to the friction between the flywheel, clutch plate and the pressure plate the clutch plate revolves the flywheel. As the clutch plate revolves the clutch shaft also revolves. Clutch shaft is connected to the transmission gear box. Thus the engine power is transmitted to the crankshaft and then to the clutch shaft.

When the clutch pedal is pressed, the pressure plate moves back against the force of the springs, and the clutch plate becomes free between the flywheel and the pressure plate. Thus the flywheel remains rotating as long as the engine is running and the clutch shaft speed reduces slowly and finally it stops rotating. As soon as the clutch pedal is pressed, the clutch is said to be engaged, otherwise it remains engaged due to the spring forces.

2.Multi-plate Clutch:

Multi-plate clutch consists of a number of clutch plates instead of only one clutch plate as in case of single plate clutch. As The number of clutch plates are increased, the friction surfaces also increases. The increased number of friction surfaces obliviously increases the capacity of the clutch to transmit torque.

The plates are alternately fitted to engine and gear box shaft. They are firmly pressed by strong coil springs and assembled in a drum. Each of the alternate plate slides on the grooves on the flywheel and the other slides on splines on the pressure plate. Thus, each alternate plate has inner and outer splines.

The multi-plate clutch works in the same way as a single plate clutch by operating the clutch pedal. The multi-plate clutches are used in heavy commercial vehicles, racing cars and motor cycles for transmitting high torque. The multi-plate clutch may be dry or wet. When the clutch is operated in an oil bath, it is called a wet clutch. When the clutch is operated dry it is called dry clutch. The wet clutch is used in conjunction with or part of the automatic transmission.

3.Cone Clutch:

Cone clutch consists of friction surfaces in the form of cone. The engine shaft consists of female cone. The male cone is mounted on the splined clutch shaft. It has friction surfaces on the conical portion. The male cone can slide on the clutch shaft. Hen the clutch is engaged the friction surfaces of the male cone are in contact with that of the female cone due to force of the spring. When the clutch pedal is pressed, the male cone slides against the spring force and the clutch is disengaged.

The only advantage of the cone clutch is that the normal force acting on the friction surfaces is greater than the axial force, as compare to the single plate clutch in which the normal force acting on the friction surfaces is equal to the axial force. The disadvantage in cone clutch is that if the angle of the cone is made smaller than 200 the male cone tends to bind in the female cone and it becomes difficult to disengage the clutch. Cone clutches are generally now only used in low peripheral speed applications although they were once common in automobiles and other combustion engine transmissions. They are usually now confined to very specialist transmissions in racing, rallying, or in extreme off-road vehicles, although they are common in power boats. Small cone clutches are used in synchronizer mechanisms in manual transmissions.

4.Dog & Spline Clutch:

This type of clutch is used to lock two shafts together or to lock a gear to shaft. It consists of a sleeve having two sets of internal splines. It slides on a splined shaft with smallest diameter splines. The bigger diameter splines match with the external dog clutch teeth on driving shaft. When the sleeve is made to slide on the splined shaft, its teeth match with the dog clutch teeth of the driving shaft. Thus the sleeve turns the splined shaft with the driving shaft.

The clutch is said to be engaged. To disengage the clutch, the sleeve is moved back on the splined shaft to have no contact with the driving shaft. This type of clutch has no tendency to slip. The driven shaft revolves exactly at the same speed of the driving shaft, as soon as the clutch is engaged. This is also known as positive clutch.

5. Centrifugal Clutch:

The centrifugal clutch uses centrifugal forces, instead of spring force for keeping it in engaged position. Also, it does not require clutch pedal for operating the clutch. The clutch is operated automatically depending on engine speed. The vehicle can be stopped in gear without stalling the engine. Similarly the gear can be started in any gear by pressing the accelerator pedal.

A centrifugal clutch works through centrifugal force. The input of the clutch is connected to the engine crankshaft while the output drives gear box shaft, chain, or belt. As engine R.P.M. increases, weighted arms in the clutch swing outward and force the clutch to engage. The most common types have friction pads or shoes radially mounted that engage the inside of the rim of housing.

On the center shaft there are an assorted amount of extension springs, which connect to a clutch shoe. When the center shaft spins fast enough, the springs extend causing the clutch shoes to engage the friction face. It can be compared to a drum brake in reverse. The weighted arms force these disks together and engage the clutch.

When the engine reaches a certain RPM, the clutch activates, working almost like a continuously variable transmission. As the load increases the R.P.M. drops thereby disengaging the clutch and letting the rpm rise again and reengaging the clutch. If tuned properly, the clutch will tend to keep the engine at or near the torque peak of the engine.

These results in a fair bit of waste heat, but over a broad range of speeds it is much more useful then a direct drive in many applications. Weaker spring/heavier shoes will cause the clutch to engage at a lower R.P.M. while a stronger spring/lighter shoes will cause the clutch to engage at a higher R.P.M.

Semi-centrifugal Clutch:-

A semi centrifugal clutch is used to transmit power from high powered engines and racing car engines where clutch disengagements requires appreciable and tiresome drivers effort. The transmission of power in such clutches is partly by clutch springs and rest by centrifugal action of an extra weight provided in system. The clutch springs serve to transmit the torque up to normal speeds, while the centrifugal force assists at speeds higher than normal.

Besides clutch, pressure plate and splines shaft it mainly consists of:

Compression spring (3 numbers)

Weighted levers (3 numbers)

At normal speeds when the power transmission is low the spring keeps the clutch engaged, the weighted levers do not have any pressure on the pressure plate. At high speed, when the power transmission is high the weights fly off and levers exert pressure on the plate which keeps the clutch firmly engaged. Thus instead of having more stiff springs for keeping the clutch engaged firmly at high speeds, they are less stiff, so that the driver may not get any strain in operating the clutch.

when the speed decreases, the weights fall and the levers do not exert any pressure on the pressure plate. Only the spring pressure is exerted on the pressure plate which is sufficient to keep the clutch engaged.

6. Electromagnetic Clutch:

An electromagnetic clutch is a clutch (a mechanism for transmitting rotation) that is engaged and disengaged by an electromagnetic actuator. In this type of clutch, the flywheel consists of winding. The current is supplied to the winding from battery or dynamo.

When the current passes through the winding it produces an electromagnetic field which attracts the pressure plate, thereby engaging the clutch. When supply is cutoff, the clutch is disengaged. The gear lever consists of a clutch release switch. When then the driver holds the gear lever to change the gear the witch is operated cutting off the current to the winding which causes the clutch disengaged. At low speeds when the dynamo output is low, the clutch is not firmly engaged.

Therefore three springs are also provided on the pressure plate which helps the clutch engaged firmly at low speed also. Cycling is achieved by turning the voltage/current to the electromagnet on and off. Slippage normally occurs only during acceleration. When the clutch is fully engaged, there is no relative slip, assuming the clutch is sized properly, and thus torque transfer is 100% efficient.

The electromagnetic clutch is most suitable for remote operation since no linkages are required to control its engagement. It has fast, smooth operation. However, because energy dissipates as heat in the electromagnetic actuator every time the clutch is engaged, there is a risk of overheating. Consequently the maximum operating temperature of the clutch is limited by the temperature rating of the insulation of the electromagnet. This is a major limitation. Another disadvantage is higher initial cost.