From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Description of an invention for a driving and steering gear using a supplementary drive with slipping and reversing clutches.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 147\4\ scan0192 | |
| Date | 15th May 1941 guessed | |
| According to the present invention, a driving and steering gear of the above type, has a supplementary drive comprising a single slipping clutch, a pair of reversing clutches driven by the slipping clutch and arranged in parallel to transmit the drive, respectively, in opposite directions and means for engaging one or other reversing clutch selectively in accordance with the direction of a turn and for engaging the slipping clutch for a turn in either direction. This arrangement omits one of the two slipping clutches hitherto considered necessary and employs instead two reversing clutches which are not required to slip and raise no problem of heat dissipation; these reversing clutches can, also, be lighter and cheaper than the slipping clutch they replace. The slipping clutch employed is no more severely loaded than either of the clutches in prior arrangements so that the problem of heat dissipation is greatly reduced. According to another feature of this invention, the means for engaging the reversing clutches selectively, comprises means normally engaging both reversing clutches and means for disengaging either one of them selectively and then engaging the slipping clutch. Since each reversing clutch transmits a drive in the opposite direction to the other, the engagement of both of them at the same time locks the supplementary drive so that it cannot rotate. This, in turn, causes the tracks to move at the same speed since a difference in their speed must result from, or cause, rotation of the supplementary drive. Thus, this feature of the invention tends to make the vehicle travel straighter, when it is not being turned, and reduces the amount of correction needed to 3. | ||