Patent ID: 8469170

Claim:
A clutch mechanism comprising: a driving-side rotator that is adapted to be rotated about a rotational axis thereof by a rotational drive force conducted from a drive source; a driven-side rotator that is coupleable with the driving-side rotator to receive the rotational drive force from the driving-side rotator; a permanent magnet that is adapted to generate an attracting magnetic force to couple between the driving-side rotator and the driven-side rotator; a movable member that is made of a magnetic material and is displaceable to increase or decrease a magnetic resistance of an attracting magnetic circuit, which is adapted to generate the attracting magnetic force through the permanent magnet; and a movable member displacing means for displacing the movable member, wherein: the attracting magnetic circuit includes both of at least a part of the driving-side rotator and at least a part of the driven-side rotator; at time of coupling between the driving-side rotator and the driven-side rotator, the movable member displacing means displaces the movable member to a location, at which the magnetic resistance of the attracting magnetic circuit is reduced in comparison to time of decoupling between the driving-side rotator and the driven-side rotator from each other; and at the time of decoupling between the driving-side rotator and the driven-side rotator, the movable member displacing means displaces the movable member to a location, at which the magnetic resistance of the attracting magnetic circuit is increased in comparison to the time of coupling between the driving-side rotator and the driven-side rotator, and a magnetic resistance of a non-attracting magnetic circuit, which is different from the attracting magnetic circuit, is reduced in comparison to the time of coupling between the driving-side rotator and the driven-side rotator.