Technical Field

This invention relates to a tensioner for an endless power transmission belt or the like, as well as to a method of making such a tensioner.

Background Art

It is known in the art to provide a tensioner for a power transmission belt that is adapted to be operated in an endless path, with the tensioner comprising a support means for being fixed relative to the belt, a belt engaging means carried by the support means and being movable relative there¬ to, and mechanical spring means operatively associated with the support means and the belt engaging means for urging the belt engaging means relative to the' support means and against the belt with a force to tension the belt.

Examples of tensioners of the above mentioned type are provided in the following five United States patents:

(1) united States Patent No. 3,413,866 - Ford

(2) united States Patent No. 4,108,013 - Sragal (3) united States Patent No. 4,145,934 - Sragal

(4) United States Patent No. 4,151,756 - Binder et al

(5) United States Patent No. 4,249,425 - Watson

It appears from item (1) above that a tension spring urges an idler pulley in tensioning engagement against a belt. It appears from item (2) above that a compression spring urges an idler pulley in tensioning engagement against a belt.

It appears from item (3) above that a leaf spring urges an idler pulley in tensioning engagement against a belt. It appears from item (4) above that a plurality of bi-metal dish-shaped springs disposed in various stacked re«

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lations thereof urge an idler pulley in tensioning engage¬ ment against a belt.

It appears from item (5) above that pneumatic means is adapted to threadedly adjust an idler pulley rod of a belt tensioner wherein a pair of dish-shaped springs urge the idler pulley in tensioning engagement against a belt.

It is also known in the art to provide a piston and cylinder arrangement for hydraulically urging an idler pulley in tensioning engagement against a belt.

For example, see the following two United States patents:

(6) United States Patent No. 3,142,193 - Polko

(7) United States Patent No« 4,276,038 - Kraft It is also known to provide a belt tensioner where friction surface dampening means of the solid type are utilized to tend to dampen vibrations and the like that are imposed on the belt tensioner.

Disclosure of the Invention It is an object of this invention to provide an improved tensioner for a power transmission belt or the like. In particular, it -was found according to the teachings of this invention that prior known belt tensioners utilized friction surfaces to tend to dampen vibrations and the like that are imposed on the belt tensioner by the belt engaged thereby, whereby such friction surfaces tend to wear out at a relatively fast rate when excessive vibrations are encountered.

However, it was found according to the teachings of this invention that it is possible to dampen movement of the spring-urged belt engaging means of a belt tensioner with fluid dampening means in order to prolong the useful life of such tensioner.

For example, one embodiment of this invention pro¬ vides a tensioner for a power transmission belt that is adapted to be operated in an endless path, the tensioner comprising a support means for being fixed relative to the belt, a belt engaging means carried by the support means and being movable relative thereto, mechanical spring means operatively associated with the support means and the belt engaging means ^' for urging the belt engaging means relative to the support means and against the belt with a force to tension the belt, and dampening means to dampen the move¬ ment of the belt engaging, means relative to the support means, characterized in that the dampening means comprises fluid dampening means operatively associated with the sup¬ port means and the belt engaging means to dampen the move- ment of the belt engaging means relative to the support means in at least one direction of movement thereof.

It is another object of this invention to provide an improved method of making a tensioner for a power trans¬ mission belt or the like.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The features of the invention, and its technical advantages, can be seen from the following description of embodiments together with the claims and the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a fragmentary isometric view looking toward the front end of an automobile engine which utilizes one embodiment of the belt tensioner of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a view looking perpendicularly toward the front end of the automobile engine of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is an enlarged front view, partially in cross section, of the belt tensioner of this invention that is being utilized for tensioning the power trans¬ mission belt of FIGS. 1 and 2.

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FIG. 4 is a side view of the belt tensioner of FIG, 3 and is taken in the direction of the arrows 4-4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view illustrating a typical flow control valve that can be utilized with the belt tensioner of this invention that is illustrated in FIG. 3. Modes for Carrying Out The Invention

While the various features of this invention are hereinafter illustrated and described as providing a belt tensioner for a particular power transmission belt,of a particular motor vehicle engine, it is to be understood that the various features of this invention can be utilized singly or in any combination thereof to provide a belt ten- sioner for other arrangements as desired.

Therefore, this invention is not to be limited to only the embodiment illustrated in the drawings, because the drawings are merely utilized to illustrate one of the wide varieties of uses of this invention. Referring now to FIGS. 1 and 2, an automobile engine is generally indicated by the reference numeral 20 and utilizes an endless power transmission belt 21 for driving a plurality of driven accessories as hereinafter set forth, the improved belt tensioner of this invention being generally indicated by the reference numeral 22 and being utilized to provide a tensioning force on the belt 21 in a manner hereinafter set forth.

The endless power transmission belt 21 may be of any suitable type known in the art and is preferably made primarily of a polymeric material because the unique fea¬ tures of the tensioner 22 of this invention readily permit the tensioner 22 to tension a belt having a polyester load- carrying cord in an efficient manner as hereinafter de-

scribed .

The belt 21 is driven by a driving sheave 23 which is operatively interconnected to the crankshaft of the en¬ gine 20 in a manner well known in the art. The driving sheave 23 drives the belt 21 in an endless path and thereby drives a sheave 24 of a power steering device used in an automobile (not shown) utilizing the engine 20, a sheave 25 of an engine water pump, a sheave 26 of an air pump of a type used in an antipollution system for the engine 20, a sheave 27 of an engine electrical alternator 28, and a sheave 30 of a compressor 31 of an air conditioning system for the automobile utilizing the engine 20.

All of the driven accessories, through their sheaves 24, 25, 26, 27 and 30, impose a load on the belt 21 _* However, only the detailed description of the load be¬ ing imposed by the compressor 31 and its sheave 30 on the belt 21 will be hereinafter described inasmuch as such load is generally of a comparatively high magnitude.

In particular, the compressor 31, upon being driven, creates a slack side 33 and a tight side 34 in the belt 21 upon turning on of the air conditioner system in the automobile, the slack side 33 and tight side 34 being produced since the belt is rotating clockwise as indicated by the arrow 35 in FIGS. 1 and 2. The belt tight side 34 (and hence, slack side 33) varies in tightness, i.e., magnitude of tightness, in a cyclic manner and as a function of the inherent cyclic change in the loads imposed by the air compressor 31. This cyclic change and load varies between greater extremes in applications where the compressor 31 is of a piston type. The cyclic load imposed by the compressor 31 has a ten¬ dency to cause the slack side 33 of the belt 21 to vibrate or oscillate.

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In addition to such vibrations and oscillations of the belt 21, it is known that normal belt wear and heat variations in the engine compartment for the engine 20 pro¬ duce variations in- the length of the belt 21 that require compensation for the same.

Thus, it is known that it is difficult to main¬ tain such a belt 21 under tension with a force required to insure non-slipping engagement and driving of the driven sheaves whereby numerous belt tensioners have been proposed and used heretofore in an effort to provide the required tension.

It is believed that the improved belt tensioner 22 of this invention functions in a manner to provide a proper tensioning force on the belt 21 to overcome the aforementioned problems, namely, provides the required tension in the overall belt 21 as well as prevents any tendency of the belt to oscillate in an undesirable manner as a result of the cyclic load change imposed by the com¬ pressor 31 whereby the improved belt tensioner 22 of this invention will now be described.

As best illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, the im¬ proved belt tensioner-22 of this invention comprises a support means 36 adapted to be fixed to a mounting bracket 37 of the engine 20 as illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2. A belt engaging means that is generally indicated by the ref¬ erence numeral 38 is movably carried by the support means 36 in a manner hereinafter set forth. The tensioner 22 has mechanical spring means.that is generally indicated by the reference numeral 39 operatively associated with the sup- port means 36 and belt engaging means 38 to tend to urge the belt engaging means 38 against the slack side 33 of the belt 21 in substantially a true vertically downwardly direction in a manner to substantially bisect the angle

made by the belt 21 between the sheaves 27 and 30 as il¬ lustrated in FIG. 2.

The belt tensioner 22 also includes a fluid damp¬ ening means that is generally indicated by the reference numeral 40 and is operatively associated with the support means 36 and the belt engaging means 38 to dampen movement of the belt engaging means 38 relative to the support means 36 in a manner hereinafter set forth.

The belt engaging means 38 includes an idler pul- ley 41 rotatably mounted by pivot pin means 42 to a pair of depending flanges 43 fastened to a block 44 that is threadedly interconnected to a rod or a shaft 45, the rod 45 having an externally threaded end 46 threadedly dis¬ posed in an internally threaded opening 47 in the block 44 and being secured therein by a lock nut means 48 in a man¬ ner well known in the art.

In this manner, the idler pulley 41 is rotatably mounted within the yoke arrangement provided by the flanges 43 and the block 44 to engage against the belt 21 as il- lustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2.

The support means 36 includes a substantially flat plate like member 49 having suitable elongated slots or openings 50 passing therethrough for adjustably mount¬ ing the support means 36 to any desired structure, such as the- mounting bracket 37 of the engine 20 of FIGS. 1 and 2. The support means 36 includes another plate like portion 51 extending transverse to the plate 49 and being secured thereto in any suitable manner, such as by being welded thereto or being integral and one-piece therewith as desired. The plate 51 has a threaded opening 52 passing through opposed sides 53 and 54 thereof and threadedly re¬ ceives a tubular support member 55 of the support means 36 which is adapted to be axially adjustable in the threaded

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opening 52 to position the lower end 56 of the tubular su port 55 at desired distances below the lower surface 54 of the support plate 51 for a purpose hereinafter described _* For example, the tubular member 55 can have a hexagonally shaped upper portion 57 so that suitable wrenches and the like can be utilized to threadedly adjust the tubular mem¬ ber 55 in the support plate 51 before or after the support means 36 has been mounted to the mounting bracket 37 of the engine 20 to initially set the force of the spring means 39 in the belt 21 as will be apparent hereinafter. The spring means 39 comprise a plurality of spring discs 58 that have central openings 59 passing therethrough and permitting the spring discs 58 to be disposed in a particular stacked relation on the rod 45 between a pair of flat washer-like members 60 and 61 re¬ spectively disposed against the lock nut means 48 and the end 56 of the tubular support member 55.

The spring discs 58 are of the type commonly sold and known as "belleville spring washers" and can be se- lected and arranged that the same will provide a substan¬ tially constant urging force or even an increasing urging force as the idler pulley 41 is being moved toward the belt 21 to take up further slack therein under the spring force of the spring members 58 in a manner fully set forth and claimed in applicant's copending patent application Serial No. 296,694 filed August 27, 1981, whereby such co- pending patent application is being incorporated into this disclosure by this reference thereto for a further de¬ scription of the structure and operation of the spring discs 58 whereby a further discussion thereof in this application is deemed unnecessary except to state that the spring discs 58 when compressed between their inner periphery 62 and outer periphery 63 deflect in such a

manner that the same store spring energy to tend to expand the same and thereby urge the pulley 41 away from the sup¬ port means 36 toward the belt 21 as will be apparent here¬ inafter. Of course, it is to be understood that other types of mechanical spring means could be utilized in the tensioner 22 of this invention, if desired, whereby this invention is not to be limited to the particular spring members 58 illustrated and described. The fluid dampening means 40 of this invention com prises a cylinder member 64 adapted to be secured to the upper hexagonal portion 57 of the tubular support member 55 in any suitable manner, such as by fastening means 65 as illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. A piston member 66 is disposed in the cylinder member 64 and has an outer peripheral portion 67 adapted to be disposed closely adjacent the internal peripheral surface 68 of the cylinder member 64 to define opposed chambers 69 and 70 on opposite sides 71 and 72 thereof while being movable in the cylinder member 64 in a manner well known in the art, the piston member 66 being secured in any suitable manner to the rod 45 which includes an upper extension 73 that has a lower externally threaded end 75 threadedly received in an internally threaded bore 76 in the upper end 77 of a lo-wer portion 78 of the rod 45 as illustrated.

In this manner, movement of the idler pulley 41 relative to the support means 36 causes like movement of the piston member 66 in the cylinder member 64 so as to change the volumes of the chambers 69 and 70 for a fluid dampening purpose hereinafter described.

The rod extension 73 extends through an opening 79 in the. lower end 80 of the cylinder member 64 as well

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as out of an opening 81 in the upper end 82 of the cylin¬ der member 64, suitable sealing means 83 being carried by the ends 80 and 82 of cylinder member 64 to seal with the rod extension 73 and thereby seal the chambers 69 and 70 from the respective openings 81 and 79 of the ends 82 and 80 of the cylinder member 64.

A passage defining means that is generally in¬ dicated by the reference numeral 84 in FIGS. 3 and 4 is utilized to fluidly interconnect the chambers 69 and 70 of the cylinder member 64 and thereby provide a closed fluid loop arrangement, the passage defining means 84 comprising a conduit means 85 having one end 86 secured in an opening 87 in the cylinder member 64 that leads to the top of the chamber 69 whilefee other end 88 of the conduit means 85 is secured in an opening 89 formed in the cylinder member 64 and being disposed in communica¬ tion with the bottom of the chamber 70 as illustrated.

The passage defining means 84 has a flow control valve means therein that is generally indicated by the reference numeral 90 in FIGS. 3 and 4 and in the prefer¬ red embodiment of this invention is adapted to provide a greater restricting flow of fluid from the chamber 69 to the chamber 70 through the passage defining means 84 than the restricting force of fluid flow from the chamber 70 to the chamber 69 as will be apparent hereinafter.

While the flow control means 90. can be of any conventional form well known in the art, one typical flow control valve means 90 that can be utilized is generally indicated by the reference numeral 91 in FIG. 5 and will later be described.

However, it is to be understood that the flow control means 90 can be a fixed flow control means, an adjustable flow control means and even be adapted to

close the passage defining means 84 to substantially lock the idler pulley 41 in a set position relative to the sup¬ port means 36 as will be apparent hereinafter.

In any event, the dampening means 40 is filled with any suitable fluid in such a manner that both chamber 69 and 70 of the cylinder member 64 are substantially fil¬ led with such fluid as well as the entire passage defining means, it presently being preferred that the fluid com¬ prises a liquid, such as a hydraulic oil or the like. If desired, a spring deflection load calibration indicator means that is generally indicated by the ref¬ erence numeral 100 in FIGS. 3 and 4 can be utilized to initially set the amount of deflection or compression of the spring members 58 so that the same will initially pro- vide a certain spring force against the belt -21 when the tensioner 22 is initially mounted to the bracket 37 of the engine 20, such indicator means 100 forming part of the invention of the aforementioned copen±ng patent applica¬ tion which has already been incorporated into the dis- closure by the previous reference thereto whereby only sufficient details of the indicator 100 necessary to un¬ derstand the operation of this invention will now be described.

The pulley block 44 has an extension 101 pro- vided with a threaded bore 102 threadedly receiving an externally threaded end 103 of a rod 104 ^' that has its upper end 105 loosely passing through an opening 106 in the support plate 51, the rod 104 having an upper ex¬ ternally threaded end 107 receiving a nut 118 for en- gaging against the upper surface 53 of the plate 51 as illustrated when the springs 58 are disposed in their fully expanded condition.

The rod 104 is provided with suitable indicator -^

marks 108 thereon that are adapted to cooperate with an indicator pointer 109 carried by the tubular support member 55 whereby the position of the marks 108 on the rod 104 relative to the indicator 109 provides a visual measure- ment of the amount of deflection or compression of the spring members 58 between the support means 36 and the belt engaging means 3S and, thus, the amount of initial load being imposed on the belt 21.

In particular, when the support means 36 is in a fixed position against the bracket 37 and the pulley 41 is disposed against the belt 21, rotation of the tubular sup¬ port member 55 in a direction to cause the end 56 thereof to move toward the pulley 41 causes the spring discs 58 to be compressed between the end 56 of the tubular member 55 and the pulley block 44 and such movement of the end 56 of the tubular support 55 moves the indicator 109 downwardly relative to the marks 108 on the indicating rod 104 so that when the desired deflection is re ^' ached, rotation of the support member 55 is terminated. In this manner, the indicator means 108, 109 will provide the assurance that a proper deflection of the spring members 58 is taking place when the idler pulley 41 is initially instal led and engaging against the belt 21.

Therefore, it can be seen that it is a relative- ly simple method of this invention to make the improved belt tensioner 22 of this invention that is adapted to operate in a manner now to be described.

When the tensioner 22 of this invention has been mounted by its support plate 49 to the bracket 37 of the engine 20 so that the idler pulley 41 thereof is engaging against the belt 21 under the urging force of the spring members 58, the installer can adjust the tubular support member 55 upwardly or downwardly relative to the plate 51

so that the spring means 58 will be under a certain in¬ itial deflection as determined by the position of the pro¬ per marks 108 on the rod 104 relative to the indicator 109 in the manner previously set forth whereby the ten- sioner 22 of this invention will be providing a pre¬ determined force against the belt 21 in the at rest posi¬ tion of the engine 20. In addition, the flow control valve 90 has been either factory adjusted or installer adjusted to set the desired differential flow character¬ istics between the chambers 69 and 70 of the dampening means 40.

Thereafter, each time the engine 20 is initially started so as to cause slack in the slack side 33 of the belt 21 and a tightening in the tight side 34 thereof, the force of the spring means 58 causes the idler pulley 41 to move inwardly to take up the slack of the belt 21 on the slack side 33 thereof and provide a tensioning force thereon as determined by the force of the spring members 58, such inward movement of the pulley 41 causing the piston member 66 to move downwardly in FIG. 3 and displace fluid in the chamber 70 through the passage de¬ fining means 84 and the flow control valve means 90 to the chamber 69 in a manner to dampen such downward move¬ ment df the pulley 41. Thus, it can be seen that as the belt 21 is travelling in the direction of the arrow 35 in FIGS. 1 and 2 by the running engine 20, any vibrations and oscillations of the belt 21, such as caused by the turn¬ ing on and off of the air conditioning compressor 31 as previously set forth, will cause an up and down oscilla¬ tion of the portion 33 of the belt 21 which movement is imposed on the pulley 41 of the tensioner 22.

In those instances where the deflection of the portion 33 of the belt 21 is upwardly in FIGS. 1 and 2 to tend to cause the pulley 41 to move upwardly relative to the support means 36, such movement causes the piston member 66 to move upwardly and thereby force the fluid from the chamber 69 through the passage defining means 84 and flow control valve 90 to the chamber 70 and since the flow control valve means 90 is set to restrict such flow at a greater rate than in the reverse direction of fluid flow through the passage defining means 84, such upward movement of the pulley 41 relative to the support means 36 is at a slower rate than when the pulley 41 is being moved downwardly away from the support means 36, the flow control means 90 being such that even the down- ward movement of the pulley 41 away from the support means 36 is dampened to a desired degree.

In this manner, it is believed that the dampen¬ ing means 40 of this invention will prolong the life of the tensioner 22 so that rapid oscillations of the spring means 58 thereof cannot take place and the spring means 58 will perform their tensioning function in a relatively smooth manner.

In particular, since the flow control means 90 provides preferential flow ratio that can be controlled, the tensioner 22 will deliver increased tension on the belt 21 when the belt 21 is subjected to acceleration and/ or heavy cyclic loads commonly encountered in belt drive systems. Accordingly, if the fluid flow from chamber 69 to chamber 70 is more restrictive than reverse flow, load fluctuations in the belt system will result in an in¬ creased pressure on the top side 71 of the piston 66 which will force the idler pulley 41 down into the belt 21 and

result in greater belt tension. In this manner, the ten¬ sioner 22 will deliver greater tension when the system demands and less tension when less tension is required. This can result in increased bearing life in belt driven accessories, reduced belt slippage under heavy loading conditions, and an increased effective life of the ten¬ sioner 22 itself.

The flow control valve 91 schematically illustrated in FIG. 5 comprises a housing means 92 provided with two branch passages 93 and 94 passing therethrough and which are joined together at their respective ends so as to be joined to the respective parts 85A and S5B of the conduit means 85 of the passage defining means 84, the branch pas¬ sage 93 having a one-way check valve means 95 therein and the passage 94 having a one-way check valve 96 therein whereby the flow of fluid from the upper conduit part 85A to the lower conduit part 85B can only take place through the branch passage 93 because of the one-way check valve means 95 thereof and the fluid flow from the lower conduit part 85B to the upper conduit part 85A can only take place through the branch passage 94 because of the one-way check valve 96. The check valves 95 and 96 comprise conventional ball and seat check valves and are well known in the art. A pair of threaded adjusting flo-w control valve mem- bers y7 and 98 are threadedly carried by the housing means 92 and respectively have ends 97* and 98V that control the amount of fluid flow through the respective branch pas¬ sages 93 and 94 depending upon the threaded relationship of the respective adjusting members 97 and 98 relative to the housing means 92, such flow control means 97 and 98 being well known in the art.

In this manner, by setting the adjusting members 97

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and 98 in the desired flow controlling relation, the rate of fluid flow through the passage 93 can be set to be more restrictive than the rate of ^" fluid flow through the pas¬ sage 94 set by the adjusting member 98 for the reasons pre- viously set forth and, if desired, the tensioner 22 can be substantially locked in a set position thereof, by utiliz¬ ing the adjusting members 97 and 98 to completely close off the passages 93 and 94 so that there can be no fluid flow through the passage defining means 84 from the chambers 69 and 70 of the cylinder member 64.

Of course, it is to be understood that the flow con¬ trol device 91 illustrated in FIG. 5 is merely for il¬ lustrative purposes and other flow control devices can be utilized whether the flow rates thereof are adjustable, fixed, or comprise two separate devices or a single device, as desired.

Also, while the spring means 39 has been illustrated and described as being remote from the dampening means 40 of the tensioner 22, it is to be understood that the spring washers 58 could be disposed in either chamber 69 or 70 or in both chambers 69 and 70, if desired.

Therefore, it can be seen that this invention not only provides an improved belt tensioner, but also this invention provides an improved method of making such a belt tensioner.

While the form and method of this invention now pre¬ ferred have been illustrated and described as required by the Patent Statute, it is to be understood that other forms and method steps can be utilized and still fall within the scope of the appended claims.