Patent ID: 8409020

Claim:
A constant velocity joint for a drive system comprising: an outer joint member having a plurality of inwardly facing outer ball grooves, the outer ball grooves consisting of a first group of grooves, each groove of which having a skewed groove shape with a skew angle (δ 1 ) other than zero and alternately arranged in opposite directions relative to an axis of rotation of outer joint member, and a second group of grooves, each groove of which having a continuously curved groove shape; an inner joint member disposed inside the outer joint member and having a plurality of outwardly facing inner ball grooves consisting of a first group of grooves, each groove of which having a skewed groove shape with the skew angle (δ 1 ) other than zero and alternately arranged in opposite directions relative to an axis of rotation of inner joint member, and a second group of grooves, each groove of which having a continuously curved groove shape, each inner ball groove of the inner joint member being coupled with a corresponding outer ball groove of the outer joint member generally in crossed pair; a plurality of torque transfer balls which are guided by the ball groove faces of outer and inner joint member; and a cage having circumferentially displaced windows to accommodate the balls therein, wherein the continuously curved groove shape of the second group of grooves of the outer and inner joint members has a skew angle (δ 2 ) other than zero at the center of the groove, said skew angle (δ 2 ) being the same as or less than said skew angle (δ 1 ) of the first group of grooves of the outer and inner joint members.