Patent ID: 8789671

Claim:
A transmission system for driving a selected one or two of a plurality of drivable devices by a single drive motor including an input shaft for connection to the drive motor, a plurality of output units, each output unit including a drive member which is drivable by the input shaft, an output shaft and a clutch mechanism, and a clutch engagement actuator arranged to act on a selected one of the clutch mechanisms to connect the input shaft to the associated output shaft, wherein the drive members are carried on a common drive shaft and are rotatable with respect to it, each clutch mechanism includes a first portion carried by the associated drive member and a second portion which is mounted to rotate about the axis of the drive shaft and is movable longitudinally along the drive shaft by the clutch engagement actuator between an engaged position, in which the first and second portions of the clutch mechanisms are in engagement and the associated drive member rotates with the drive shaft, and a disengaged position, the clutch engagement actuator is connected to a rotary clutch shaft which carries one or more actuating members cooperating with a respective second portion of the clutch mechanisms, and each actuating member is so constructed that as the clutch shaft rotates the clutch mechanisms are engaged and disengaged sequentially, characterised in that each actuating member extends generally radially from the clutch shaft and includes a portion which is offset from the remainder of the actuating member in the direction of the length of the clutch shaft, wherein the second portions of the clutch members of at least one pair of adjacent output units are connected together to form a unit in which at least two of the one or more actuating members constitute a single actuating member which includes two portions which are offset in opposite directions from the remainder of the actuating member in the direction of the length of the clutch shaft, which two portions are offset from one another in the circumferential direction of the actuating member.