Patent GB-397535-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in engine starting mechanism
IPC: F02N99/00
Filed: 1932-02-18
Abstract: 397,535. Turning-gear. BENDIX AVIATION CORPORATION, 105, West Adams Street, Chicago, U.S.A. Feb. 18, 1932, No. 4865. Convention date, March 6, 1931. [Class 7 (v).] In an engine starter comprising an inertia member connected alternatively with a source from which it receives and stores energy and with a member of the engine to be started, a variable-ratio transmission mechanism is provided between the inertia member and the engine member. As shown, the casing of the starter comprises sections 4 .. 7 mounted on the engine crank-case. The inertia member is a flywheel 2 set in rotation by a manuallydriven shaft 72 driving through a bevel wheel 77 and a bevel wheel 78 on a stub shaft 47 projecting from the closed end of a rotatable clutch barrel 48. Planet wheels 51 rotatable upon the end of the barrel mesh with a fixed internal gear 52 and with a sun gear 50 rotating on the shaft 47 and integral with the hub of an internally toothed gear 44. Pinions 43, 38, integral with a bell-shaped member 39 and with a shaft 40, mesh with the gear 44 and with a pinion 37 on a. stub shaft 32, the shafts 32, 40 being rotatable in ball bearings in the wall 36 of the casing section 5. Between the shaft 32 and the flywheel 2 is interposed the variableratio transmission mechanism, which comprises a plate 26 splined to a collar 31 on the shaft 32 ; a plate 17 provided with pins 16 sliding in apertures in the flywheel ; and barrel-shaped rollers 19 held in frictional engagement with the inner faces of the plates 17, 26 by springs 97 around the pins 16. The rollers 19 rotate on shafts 21 carried in yokes 22 pivoted on trunnions 23 supported in the adjacent walls 25 of the casing sections 6, 7. The inner ends 95 of the shafts 21 engage a thrust bearing on one end of a sleeve 18, the other end of which carries a collar 91 engaged by weighted levers 90 pivoted upon the plate 17. The ends 95 of the shafts 21 are normally held to the left by a spring 96 bearing against the plate 17. When the flywheel is set in rotation and accelerated, the weighted levers 90 move outward under centrifugal action and move the sleeve 18 to the right, tilting the shafts 21 and barrels 19 and thus changing the radii of the frictional engagement circles on the plates 17, 26, so that the relative speed of the flywheel gradually increases to a maximum. When the flywheel becomes the driver, the reverse change takes place, the plate 26 and the gear train being driven at a substantially constant speed as the flywheel runs down. The flywheel drives the engine-engaging member 3 through the gear train, the clutch barrel 48, and clutch plates 57 splined alternately to the barrel and to a nut 58 engaging a threaded shaft 68 on which the member 3 is splined. A spring 71 holds the members 3, 68 in engagement respectively with a nut 80 and a shoulder 81 on a rod 79 sliding in the stub shaft 47 and actuated by a bifurcated lever 82 to bring the member 3 into engagement with a member of the engine to be started. Oil from the crank case is excluded from the starter housing by a cup-shaped member 83 fitted with a flexible annular disc 85 engaging the hub of the member 3, a sleeve 86 and a ring 87 serving to hold the member 83 in place.