Design and Experimental Validation of a Roller One-Way Clutch (OWC) Having Innovative ISC (Integrated Springs Cage)

One-Way Clutch (OWC) systems have a concept based in a friction clutch with rollers. Such type of device is applied, for instance, in starter drives for starter motors and alternator overrunning pulleys. In the OWC configuration helical springs are positioned in such a way to guarantee the uniform contact of all rollers with the outer and inner races. This particular requirement is essential for the adequate performance of the system and becomes the weakest link of the current design. The objective of the present work is to investigate innovative design that could improve the system performance without increased cost. The development of a concept having a cage with integrated springs is described in this paper which is named ISC (Integrated Springs Cage). Furthermore, design improvements obtained by FEA simulation are shown. Finally, the experimental validation by durability tests demonstrates the feasibility of the proposed design. The ISC configuration is a patent required design and represents newly innovative effort in roller OWC systems improvement. The new configuration simplifies the assembly process of OWC systems and has great potential of cost reduction by requiring fewer components.