JPH0538251Y2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of Industrial Application This invention relates to an improvement of a temperature-sensing fan coupling device used in a cooling fan of an internal combustion engine for an automobile.

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in cooling fans for internal combustion engines for automobiles, temperature-sensing fan coupling devices that can control the rotational speed according to the temperature of air after passing through a radiator are widely used.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the conventional fan coupling device, in which 1 is a hollow drive shaft equipped with a V-belt pulley 2, and 3 is rotatably supported on the drive shaft 1 via a bearing 4. A housing 6 having a cooling fan 5 attached to its outer periphery is fixed to the front end of the drive shaft 1, and a housing 6 is fixed to the front end of the drive shaft 1.
The inside of the housing 3 is connected to a storage chamber 8 at the front by a disc-shaped partition plate 7.
and a rear working chamber 9 that accommodates the rotor 6. Multistage labyrinth grooves 10 and 11 that engage with each other are formed on the outer peripheral edge of the rotor 6 and the inner wall of the housing 3 that opposes the outer peripheral edge of the rotor 6. The viscous resistance of the working fluid is obtained between the two labyrinth grooves 10 and 11 to form a fluid coupling. It acts as a. In addition, near the outer periphery of the partition plate 7, a communication hole 12 is formed substantially along the radial direction to communicate the storage chamber 8 and the working chamber 9. Further, substantially in the center of the side cover 3a of the housing 3, a rotating shaft 14 to which the center end of the outer spiral bimetal 13 is fixed is supported. Further, a valve plate 15 that opens and closes the communication hole 12 is supported at the inner end of the rotating shaft 14 . This valve plate 15 is the sixth valve plate.
As shown in FIG. 7 and FIG. 7, a fulcrum portion 16 is bent into a substantially crank shape on the tip side, and a rectangular valve body 17 is disposed approximately parallel to the partition plate 7 via the fulcrum portion 16. have.

The valve plate 15 controls the circulation of the working fluid returned to the storage chamber 8 via the return passage 18 after passing through the labyrinth grooves 10 and 11, depending on the air temperature after passing through the radiator (not shown). are doing. In other words, when the air temperature is low,
The valve body 17 of the valve plate 15 is connected to the communication hole 12.
to stop the circulation of working fluid. Therefore, the amount of working fluid sent into the labyrinth grooves 10 and 11 is reduced, and the torque transmitted from the rotor 6 to the housing 3 is therefore reduced, causing the cooling fan 5 to rotate at a low speed. On the other hand, if the air temperature is high,
The valve body 17 rotates to close the communication hole 12, and the working fluid flows from the storage chamber 8 into the working chamber 9. Therefore, the working fluid is sufficiently supplied to the labyrinth grooves 10 and 11, the torque transmitted from the rotor 6 to the housing 3 increases, and the relative speed difference between the two 6 and 3 becomes small, and the cooling fan 5 operates at high speed. It rotates (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 184724/1984).

Problems to be Solved by the Invention Incidentally, in the general fan coupling device as described above, the valve plate 15 and the partition plate 7 are arranged sufficiently close to each other, and in particular, the partition plate of the valve body 17 One side surface 17a on the 7 side is a communication hole 12
One side 17 of the upper partition plate 7 required for reliable opening and closing.
It is desirable that the entire part is in close contact with a at all times.

However, in the conventional fan coupling device described above, the side cover 3a of the housing 3
Due to assembly errors in the axial direction of the rotating shaft 14 and dimensional tolerances in processing, the valve plate 1
5 may not be properly positioned with respect to the partition plate 7, and the valve plate 15 may be placed too close to the partition plate 7 side. Therefore, the valve body 17
As shown by the broken line in the figure, the fulcrum portion 16 that is strongly pressed against the partition plate 7 is used as a fulcrum to warp outward, so that a relatively large gap C is created between the tip 17b of the valve body 17 and the partition plate 7. Occur. As is clear from the experimental results shown in Fig. 4, the relationship between the amount of gap C and the amount of pressure applied to the valve plate 15 is that in the conventional model (dashed line), the amount of gap C increases with a small increase in the amount of pressure applied. The rate of increase increases rapidly. Therefore, the working fluid in the storage chamber 8 flows into the working chamber 9 from the gap C through the communication hole 12, and the liquid level in the working chamber 9 becomes relatively high. Therefore, when restarting a cold engine, the rotational torque of the rotor 6 is transmitted to the housing 3 by the working fluid in the working chamber 9.
This causes a problem in that the engine is overcooled by the air blown by the cooling fan 5 and warm-up performance deteriorates.

Therefore, as in the technique described in JP-A-57-51027, for example, the valve plate is bent near the valve body into a substantially N-shape, and the valve body is tilted using the bent portion as a fulcrum. , those that ensure adhesion to the partition plate are also provided.

However, in this conventional example, the entire valve plate has a uniform width, and the width dimension is set to be relatively large, so that the rigidity of the bent portion is high. Therefore, a flexible and easy tilting action of the valve body cannot be obtained, and the entire valve body cannot be brought into contact with the opposing surface of the partition plate with good followability.
As a result, it becomes extremely difficult to obtain sufficient adhesion between the valve body and the partition plate. Therefore, the same problem as the above-mentioned conventional example is caused.

Means for Solving the Problems This invention was devised in view of the above-mentioned problems of the conventional fan coupler spring device.In particular, the bending fulcrum part of the valve plate is bent on both sides of a long and narrow part with a cutout in the center. The base end of the valve body is formed into a pair of long plate pieces, each tip of each of the two bending fulcrums is directly connected to both side edges of the base end of the valve body, and the base end of the valve body is sandwiched between the two bending fulcrums. It is characterized in that a protruding piece slightly inclined toward the partition plate is provided on the end edge.

According to this invention having the above configuration, for example, due to an error in assembling the rotating shaft to the housing, the tip of the valve body is placed too close to the partition plate, and the tip ends on the opposite surface of the partition plate. When pressed, the valve body flexibly tilts using the double bending fulcrum part as a fulcrum,
The base end side is also brought into contact with the opposing surface of the partition plate. Therefore, the entire valve body is in close contact with the opposing surface of the partition plate.

On the other hand, if the proximal end of the valve body is placed too close to the partition plate and the proximal end is pressed against the partition plate and the distal end side tries to bend back, the reaction force of the protruding valve Prevents warping of the tip. Therefore, the tip of the valve body flexibly tilts toward the partition plate via the bending fulcrum, and the entire valve body tightly contacts the opposing surface of the partition plate.

In addition, since the protruding pieces are slightly inclined toward the partition plate, the pressing force of the valve body against the partition plate is not biased and acts almost uniformly over the entire body, so that the valve body and the partition plate are in close contact with each other. Your sexuality will further improve.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of this invention will be described in detail based on the drawings. Incidentally, the same reference numerals are given to the constituent parts common to the conventional one, and the repeated explanation will be omitted.

That is, FIG. 3 shows the overall configuration of the fan coupling device according to this invention, in which 1 is a drive shaft having a V-belt pulley 2, 3 is a housing, and 5 is a drive shaft having a V-belt pulley 2.
1 is a cooling fan; 6 is a rotor; 7 is a partition plate that separates the inside of the housing 3 into a storage chamber 8 and an operating chamber 9;
0 and 11 are labyrinth grooves, 12 is a communication hole formed in the partition plate 7 and communicates the storage chamber 8 and the working chamber 9, 13 is a spiral bimetal, and 14 is located approximately in the center of the side cover 3a of the housing 3. The rotary shaft 14 has a bearing on its inner end, and has a long plate-shaped valve plate 15 that opens and closes the communication hole 12.
is supported. This valve plate 15 is
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the fulcrum portion 16 is bent into a substantially crank shape on the distal end side, and the bent fulcrum portion 1
A rectangular valve body 17 is disposed substantially parallel to the partition plate 7 with a valve 6 in between.

The bending fulcrum portion 16 is composed of a pair of elongated long plate pieces 16a, 16b on both sides with a cutout in the center, and the tips of the long plate pieces 16a, 16b are connected to the lower end of the proximal end 17b of the valve body 17. Directly connected to both sides.

Then, the valve body 17 is centered around the bending fulcrum portion 16.
On the opposite side, that is, at the center of the lower edge of the base end portion 17b of the valve body 17 between the long plate pieces 16a and 16b, a substantially rectangular protrusion piece 21 extends downward in the figure. Further, this protruding piece 21 has an inner surface 21a that is connected to the valve body 17.
It is formed to be slightly inclined toward the partition plate 7 so as to form a substantially dogleg shape with one side 17a on the partition plate 7 side.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, for example, an error occurs when assembling the rotary shaft 14 in the axial direction with respect to the side cover 3a, and the valve plate 15 is disposed too close to the partition plate 7 side, and the valve body When the tip end 17b of the valve body 17 presses the opposing surface 7a of the partition plate 7, the valve body 17
The base end portion 17c of the partition plate 7 freely and easily tilts toward the partition plate 7.

In particular, the bending fulcrum portion 16 is
Since the valve body 17 is made of aluminum and has low rigidity, flexible elastic deformation is obtained, and as a result, the free tilting ability of the valve body 17 is improved, and the followability to the partition plate 7 is improved.

Therefore, the entire one side surface 17a of the valve body 17 is in close contact with the opposing surface 7a. At the same time, the inner surface 21a of the protrusion 21 also presses against the opposing surface 7a, and the reaction force of the pressing force of the protrusion 21 causes the tip 17c of the valve body 17 to be pressed relatively toward the partition plate 7. It is possible to prevent the valve body 17 from warping outward using the bending fulcrum portion 16 as a fulcrum.

In addition, if the base end 17c side of the valve body 17 is placed too close to the partition plate 7, the base end 17c is pressed against the partition plate 7, and the distal end 17b
is freely tilted using the long plate pieces 16a, 16b as fulcrums. As a result, substantially the entire one side surface 17a of the valve body 17 is always in close contact with the opposing surface 7a, and the generation of a gap is sufficiently prevented (see the solid line in FIG. 4).

Therefore, when the temperature of the air passing through the radiator is low, the valve body 17 can surely close the flow hole 12, preventing the working fluid from flowing into the working chamber 9 from the storage chamber 8, and as a result, when restarting the cold machine. This prevents relative rotation between the housing 3 and the rotor 6, that is, co-rotation.

Moreover, since the protruding piece 21 is slightly inclined toward the partition plate 7, the pressing force of the valve body 17 against the partition plate 7 is not biased and acts almost uniformly on the whole, so that one side 17a and the opposite side The adhesion with 7a is further improved.

Furthermore, the sliding friction resistance between the valve body 17 and the partition plate 7 can be made as small as possible due to the flexible elastic deformation of the fulcrum portion 16, so that the slidability of the valve body 17 is improved.

Effects of the invention As is clear from the above explanation, according to the fan coupling device for an internal combustion engine according to this invention, due to assembly errors etc., the valve plate is placed too close to the partition plate side, and the valve body When the tip of the valve presses the opposing surface of the partition plate, the valve body freely and easily tilts using the double-bending fulcrum as a fulcrum, and at the same time,
The protruding piece also presses the opposing surface, and the reaction force of the protruding piece prevents the tip from warping.

On the other hand, if the proximal end of the valve body is placed too close to the partition plate, when the protruding piece presses against the partition plate, the distal end side will move toward the partition plate using the double bending fulcrum as a fulcrum. It can be tilted freely in any direction.

In particular, the bending fulcrum is formed from a pair of long plate pieces with a narrow width to reduce rigidity and provide flexible elastic deformation, which improves the free tilting of the valve body.
The ability to follow the partition plate is improved, and the valve body and the partition plate can always be brought into close contact with each other.

As a result, the generation of a gap between the valve body and the partition plate is sufficiently prevented, the valve body can reliably close the flow hole, and the flow of working fluid from the reservoir chamber into the working chamber is prevented. As a result, the housing is prevented from being rotated at a high rotational speed when restarting the cold engine, sufficiently preventing overcooling of the engine, and improving warm-up performance.

Moreover, the sliding friction resistance between the valve body and the partition plate can be made as small as possible due to the flexible elastic deformation of both bending fulcrum parts, so that the sliding properties of the valve body are improved.

In addition, since the protruding pieces are slightly inclined toward the partition plate, the pressing force of the valve body against the partition plate is not biased and acts substantially uniformly on the whole, so that the adhesion is further improved.

In addition, this invention simply forms the bending fulcrum part of the valve plate with a pair of long plate pieces and provides a protruding piece, so it is possible to provide a high-performance device with a simple structure and low manufacturing cost. It's practical.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Figure 1 is an enlarged front view of the valve plate of the first embodiment of this invention, Figure 2 is an enlarged side view of the same valve plate and partition plate, and Figure 3 is the overall configuration of this embodiment. 4 is a characteristic diagram showing the relationship between the amount of pressure on the valve plate and the amount of clearance between the valve body and the partition plate. FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing a conventional fan coupling device. FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing the conventional fan coupling device. is a partially enlarged front view of the valve plate of this conventional device;
FIG. 7 is an enlarged side view showing the valve plate and partition plate. 1... Drive shaft, 3... Housing, 7... Partition plate, 8... Storage chamber, 9... Working chamber, 12... Distribution hole, 13... Bimetal (temperature sensitive member), 14...
Rotating shaft, 15... Valve plate, 16... Bending fulcrum portion, 16a, 16b... Long plate piece, 17... Valve body, 17c... Base end portion, 21... Projection piece.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] a housing rotatably supported by the drive shaft;
a partition plate that separates the inside of the housing into a storage chamber and an operating chamber; a communication hole bored in the partition plate to communicate the two chambers; and a temperature-sensitive member provided at the center of a side of the housing. and a valve plate that opens and closes the communication hole by means of a valve body that is supported by the rotation shaft and is formed at its tip via a bending fulcrum. , the bending fulcrum portion of the valve plate is formed by a pair of elongated long plate pieces on both sides with a cutout in the center, and each tip of the both bending fulcrum portions is formed on both side edges of the proximal end portion of the valve body. A fan coupling device for an internal combustion engine, characterized in that a protrusion piece that is directly connected and slightly inclined toward the partition plate is provided on the edge of the proximal end of the valve body sandwiching the two bending fulcrum parts.