Long Term High Energy Clutch/Braking Technique

A wet clutching/braking mechanism has been designed to operate as prescribed in a patent issued to R. A. Iverson in 1982 (1)*. A key element in this design is to allow high radial oil flow rates through the clutch plate stack to carry the heat generated during power absorbtion away from the clutch disks. A continuously variable transmission incorporating this new clutch was constructed and tested under contract to NASA in which the clutch assembly was found to absorb 5.78 × 10⁻³ KW/cm² (0.05 HP/in²) of surface area with no supplemental oil cooling. As a result of the new design, an equal fraction of torque was transmitted through each of the disks in the clutch pack and no wear of the clutch plates was descernable after several hours of high energy rejection operation. As applied to transmissions, this design eliminates the need for torque convertors/fluid couplers and tolerates long duration of slippage.