Patent ID: 8272981

Claim:
A driven pulley assembly for a continuously-variable vehicle transmission, comprising a support element having an axis, a first half-pulley rigidly connected to said support element, a second half-pulley facing said first half-pulley to define a seating adapted to house a drive belt, said second half-pulley being axially and circumferentially mobile in relation to said support element, a cam assembly functionally inserted between a radial peripheral portion of said second half-pulley and a radial peripheral portion of said support element to control the position of said second half-pulley, said cam assembly defining a plurality of circumferential cavities carried by the radial peripheral portion of said second half-pulley and respectively defined by first and second sides disposed crosswise to said axis that act as cam-followers, and further comprising a plurality of cams each of which has a base portion connected to said support element and housed in a corresponding one of the plurality of circumferential cavities wherein each of said cams cooperates selectively with said first and second sides, said first and second sides defining a respective contact surface for a relative portion of each of the plurality of cams and converging towards said first half pulley, and each of said plurality of cams further including deformable shock-absorbing material mounted over said base portion so as to be positioned within the plurality of circumferential cavities to attenuate impacts in the circumferential direction with the deformable shock absorbing material being interposed with circumferential play between two stops defined by the first and second sides, respectively, thereby delimiting the maximum relative motion along the circumferential direction between the first and second half-pulleys.