Abstract: A shift lever for the selective actuation of power tools on a utility carries a rotary and axially shiftable knob which can be indexed by ball checks in a plurality of angular positions to establish different speed ratios of the vehicular transmission by actuating respective microswitches through cams bearing upon mobile bodies which are lodged in apertures of a stationary collar surrounding an extension of the knob. A rocker switch on that knob can be flipped by the fingers of the operator to switch between forward and reverse drive.

Abstract: A clutch assembly, constituting a component of a gear transmission, has two gear-carrying shaft extremities projecting from opposite sides of a clutch casing. One shaft extremity is provided with axially extending teeth, carried on its face or on a sleeve keyed thereto, normally engaging similar teeth on a confronting drive shaft. The other shaft extremity is mounted, by means of a combined journal and thrust bearing, in a retaining member which is detachably secured to the transmission housing and has passages for supplying pressure fluid (oil) to the clutch casing. Upon removal of the retaining member, the assembly can be axially shifted to disengage the first-mentioned shaft extremity from the drive shaft whereupon it can be laterally withdrawn from the transmission housing.

Abstract: Piezoelectric transducers are mounted on support members of a gag press for sensing pressure vibrations arising in a workpiece in part as reflections of an initial pulse produced by the striking of the workpiece by a press ram at the initiation of a straightening operation. An electrical circuit is connected to the transducers for analyzing the sensed pressure waves and for comparing the analyzed waves to pre-established sound-threshold data stored in a memory. Upon detecting pressure waves indicative of an internal structural flaw in the workpiece, a microprocessor in the electrical circuit signals a ram drive to raise the ram and thereby terminate straightening operations, the defect-bearing workpiece being transferred to a scrap store or to a heat treatment plant by a sorter according to signals from the microprocessor.

Abstract: A wheel-mounted drive system usable for a sprocket wheel of a chain-drive vehicle has a nonrotatable two-part housing adapted to be mounted directly and substantially immovably on the vehicle frame. A hydraulic motor is mounted in one part of this housing and has a motor output extending through the other part of the housing which contains a transmission whose input is connected to the motor output and whose output is directly connected to the drive wheel and to a brake. A bearing rotatably mounts the transmission output directly on the housing. The brake can be pressurized through axial passages extending through the main shaft of the motor. The transmission includes planetary gearing, and the motor, transmission, and output member are all rotatable about the same central axis.

Abstract: A hydromechanical drive has an input shaft connected permanently to the input of a variable-volume hydraulic pump and to the planet carrier of a summing transmission. The pump in turn drives a motor which in turn rotates the sun gear of this summing transmission, which has a first planet gear meshing with the sun gear and with a respective ring gear and a second planet gear meshing with the first planet gear and with a respective ring gear. A planetary-gear output transmission has its planet carrier connected to the ring gear of the second planet gear of the summing transmission and a planet carrier connected permanently to the output shaft of the drive and connectable through an openable clutch to the ring gear of the first planet gear of the summing transmission. In addition this output transmission has a first planet gear meshing with the respective sun gear and with a respective ring gear and a second planet gear meshing with the respective first planet gear and with its own ring gear.

Abstract: A steplessly adjustable hydrostatic-mechanical composite transmission in which an input shaft is connected to one shaft of a multishaft summing transmission and to one unit of a hydrostatic transmission whose two units are connected in a hydraulic circuit. One of the hydrostatic units is of the variable displacement type while the other is of the constant displacement type and can be connected by selective actuation of respective clutches to two other input elements of the multishaft planetary summing transmission. The latter has, in accordance with the invention, two output members, each of which is connected to a respective input shaft of an after transmission which can be of the planetary or fixed gear pair type. The latter transmission can also be used to effect reversing of the output shaft which is driven thereby.

Abstract: A shaft transmission has coaxial tubular input and output shafts extending forwardly and backwardly from the transmission. Front and rear planet assemblies in the transmission include respective sun gears, planet carriers, and ring gears. The front planet carrier is fixed on an outer shaft enclosing the entire transmission. The rear sun gear is fixed rotationally to the input shaft. The rear planet carrier is fixed rotationally both to the front sun gear and to the output shaft. The rear ring gear is fixed rotationally to the front ring gear. Such a transmission divides the load between the front and rear planet assemblies while giving a substantial stepdown in the neighborhood of 4:1. In addition the input and output shafts form a throughgoing passage through which a fluid medium, such as drilling mud, can be passed.

Abstract: A transmission of the multispeed reversible type, shiftable under load (i.e. having continuously engaging gears establishing the several speeds) comprising a one-piece housing formed with a window large enough to permit the various speed-determining gears and clutches to be introduced and closed by a cover in which the input shaft is journaled. The speed-determining gears and clutches are mounted for rotation upon fixed shafts which are held against rotation and span opposite walls of the housing. Each of the fixed shafts has a flange on one end thereof which is bolted to the housing upon insertion of the shaft through an opening on the side of the housing provided with the flange.

Abstract: A hydraulic control system for a hydrodynamic/mechanical transmission with hydraulically actuated clutches for selecting the "gears" or "speeds" of the mechanical transmission comprises a hydraulic-pressure source, e.g. a pump connected with the crank shaft of an engine, delivering hydraulic fluid to the clutches via a main pressure line. The pressure in this line is controlled by a main pressure valve such that the excess fluid is supplied to the feed line of the hydrodynamic unit of the hydrodynamic/mechanical transmission, e.g. a torque converter or fluid coupling. At higher fluid excesses in the main pressure line, the hydraulic fluid is bypassed to the intake side of the source between a filter and the pump. The system includes a further pressure valve which constitutes the pressure control valve for the hydrodynamic unit, the latter valve having only two controlled ports and being free from any port connected to the reservoir.

Abstract: A load-splitting transmission has a housing in which are journaled about fixed axes a central shaft and two outer shafts. One end of the central shaft is connected to the drive and the other end of the central shaft, which is rotatable relative to the drive end, is connected to a load. The two outer shafts are each constituted as an outer tube shaft extending a part of the length of the respective outer shaft and a central torsion or core shaft extending the full length. A plurality of sets of gears are provided, each including a central gear on the central shaft and an outer gear on each of the outer shafts and meshing with the central gear. Synchromesh clutches can connect the various gears to the respective shafts for shifting. In addition at least some of the gears may be limitedly angularly displaceable on the respective shafts to compensate for misalignment and prevent gear clashing.

Abstract: A hydraulic control system of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,938,410 is improved by providing a 2-3 shift valve which connects a direct passage and a throttle-containing passage to the control valve for the second clutch or brake (second-friction device) while the pressure in the first clutch or brake (first friction device) is applied to one side of the second control valve, a restoring spring acting upon the opposite side of this second control valve. This valve establishes a threshold for the pressure in the first friction device such that the direct passage is connected to the second friction device below the threshold while the throttle-containing passage is connected to the second friction device at or above this threshold.

Abstract: An automatic control for an automotive-vehicle hydrostatic transmission in which the engine drives a variable-displacement hydrostatic (axial-piston) pump which is connected with the motor by hydraulic lines. The hydrostatic (axial-piston) motor can be connected to the wheels of the vehicle. The control circuit comprises a filling pump, a metering throttle, a reversing valve and an adjusting device. The metering throttle is provided in a bypass between the filling pump and the reversing valve and is connected to the line communicating with the control element. A further throttle is provided in this line and has a diameter/length ratio less than 1.

Abstract: An axial securing assembly for a rolling bearing in which the outer race is received in an undivided housing or housing cover and surrounds an array of bearing balls or rollers relative to which the inner race is rotatable. According to the invention, the housing is formed with a cylindrical bore in which the outer race is received and the outer race is provided with an outwardly open circumferential groove in which a spring ring is partly received. The spring ring extends radially outwardly into an inwardly open groove formed in the cylindrical wall of the housing and the latter is provided with a radial depth equal to or greater than the radial width of the spring ring. Along the periphery of the bearing bore formed in this housing, there is provided at least one recess affording axial access to the ends of the spring ring so that the mounting tool can be inserted into the spring ring to spread the latter apart and permit the spring ring to engage in the outwardly open groove of the outer race.

Abstract: A drive shaft and a driven shaft are linked through a differential gearing which distributes the applied torque over two coaxial satellite shafts. One of the satellite shafts is directly connected with the driven shaft through a first steplessly variable split-sheave coupling of the Reeves type while the other satellite shaft, which is immobilizable by a brake, is connected through a second such coupling with an intermediate shaft which in turn can be coupled with the driven shaft via a clutch. With both the brake and the clutch released, the system idles; with the clutch operated, the torque transmitted from the drive shaft to the driven shaft varies inversely with the speed ratio of the two synchronized split-sheave couplings whereas actuation of the brake in lieu of the clutch doubles the output speed and halves the transmitted torque. If only unidirectional rotation is to be transmitted, the clutch can be replaced by a one-way coupling which lets the driven shaft rotate freely when the brake is engaged.

Abstract: A mounting for a vehicular traction member, such as an endless track, comprises a trunnion carried by means of two axially separated journal bearings on a hollow hub projecting from a vehicle frame, the hub being an extension of a transmission housing accommodating a planetary-gear train driven by a power shaft. An ancillary shaft coaxial with the power shaft, floatingly disposed within the hub, meshes at opposite ends with internal gear teeth of the trunnion and of a planet carrier forming part of the planetary-gear train, that planet carrier also driving a gear pump for the circulation of oil from a pump within the transmission housing across a space between the two journal bearings in which the oil is cooled through the trunnion wall.

Abstract: Two gears idling on a shaft can be selectively coupled therewith by an interposed jaw clutch including a central gear fixed to the shaft and a surrounding ring gear axially slidable thereon for engagement with jaw teeth on either of the two flanking idler gears. Two blocking rings on opposite sides of the central gear are entrained thereby for joint rotation with freedom of limited relative angular displacement by frictional contact with the adjoining idler gears between two extreme relative position in which these rings prevent the shifting of the ring gear into engagement with the jaw teeth of the corresponding idler gear; such engagement is possible only in an intermediate angular position of the respective blocking ring in which several stop teeth on the blocking ring register with matching peripheral indentations on the ring gear.

Abstract: Two closely juxtaposed coaxial disks, one fixed and the other rotatable, are formed with confronting annular grooves partitioned by slanting vanes into coextensive pockets designed to decelerate the rotation upon the admission of hydraulic fluid into a chamber formed around the rotatable disk by the fixed disk and a brake housing secured thereto. The fixed disk has a limitedly rotatable annular insert which carries at least a part of each stationary vane thereof and can be moved between a working position in which its pockets are mutually isolated and an idling position in which these pockets intercommunicate either directly or through an external space. The annular insert may be urged into the idling position by a set of springs whose force is overcome, upon the production of hydraulic fluid, by the reaction torque exerted upon the stationary vanes.

Abstract: A planet carrier for an epicyclic gear train comprises two parallel sheet-metal disks of different diameters with coaxial central apertures for the insertion of a sun gear. The larger disk is formed with peripheral teeth and with a plurality of arcuate slots as well as several mounting holes between its periphery and its central aperture. The smaller disk has mounting holes aligned with those of the larger disk and is integral with a plurality of spider legs whose extremities are received in the arcuate slots of that larger disk and are welded thereto. The aligned mounting holes, each pair of which is designed to receive the shaft of a respective planet pinion, are each provided with two diametrically opposite notches into which the corresponding shaft end is tamped to wedge the shaft firmly in position. The notches are formed by punching, concurrently with the stamping of the respective disk from a sheet-metal blank.

Abstract: A planetary-gear coupling between a torque converter and a load, such as an automotive engine, comprises a transmission housing with two fluidically actuated clutches serving to couple an input shaft with either of two coaxial output shafts carrying respective sun gears of two planetary-gear trains. The input shaft, driven by the rotor of the torque converter, and a surroundng tube, secured to its stator, define between them an annular clearance bounded by two sealing rings, one of these rings being interposed as a journal bearing between the tube and a first clutch housing positively connected with the input shaft. The annular clearance can be pressurized from the output of a fluid pump and communicates through a bore in the first clutch housing with the interior thereof which contains a first piston displaceable to consolidate that housing with the inner output shaft.

Abstract: Two concurrently operated hydraulic brakes of an automotive transmission, actuated in an intermediate-speed ("second gear") position, are filled under the control of a slide valve whose slider in a normal position admits fluid at high rate to both brakes and thereafter assumes an unstable throttling position in which the fluid pressure gradually builds up in them to a value causing an associated plunger to return the slider to normal. One of the brakes, which is only unidirectionally effective, remains actuated also upon an upshift into a high-speed position ("third gear") whereas the other, bidirectionally effective brake is released upon such upshift under the control of a shift valve which cuts off the fluid flow to the latter brake and establishes a drainage path therefor by passing the slide valve.