Patent ID: 6056097
Filing Date: 2000-05-02
Classification: B60K,F16D

Abstract:
A viscous coupling comprising:a housing and a hub arranged around an axis of rotation so as to be rotatable relative to one another and to form a closed unit;a set of inner plates which are rotationally fast with said hub;a set of outer plates which are attached in said housing in a rotationally fast way, with said plates of at least one set of said inner and outer plates being movable in the direction of said axis of rotation and with said inner plates and said outer plates being alternately arranged in the direction of the axis of rotation in a certain sequence while at least partially overlapping one another and both said inner plates and said outer plates have apertures;a viscous medium at least partially filling a remaining space between said housing, said hub and said plates;said apertures of said plates having two delimiting faces whose distance from an imaginary radius referring to the axis of rotation, said distance starting from a vertex positioned on said imaginary radius, increases in the direction towards said axis of rotation, with said apertures being delimited by a base face which connects said delimiting face; andwherein said apertures of both said inner plates and said outer plates are each distributed on at least one imaginary circular line around said axis of rotation, with said apertures of said inner plates being offset relative to said apertures of said outer plates in the radial direction with reference to said axis of rotation in such a way that, when said hub is in a certain rotational position relative to said housing, said apertures overlap in certain regions and thus form through-flow channels between said apertures of said inner plates and said apertures of said outer plates.