Inherently torque limiting magnetically-coupled wheels

摘要

An apparatus having at least one rotatable driven object having an edge on which are disposed a series of adjacent magnets of alternating polarity and a driving object rotatable by an external motor torque and having a series of adjacent magnets of alternating polarity on a magnet supporting surface. The magnet supporting surface of the driving object is rotatable through a common region approximately centered about the point of closest approach to the magnet supporting edge of the driven object for sequentially placing magnets of the driving object in the region enveloping the effective interactive range between the two objects. The fields of magnets of opposite polarity of the driving object interact with the fields of the magnets on the driving object to effect rotation of the driven object. Disclosed are structures for torque limiting wheels, magnetic gear trains, reduction gears and ball joints, and propulsion systems for watercraft and aircraft.

主权项

1. A magnetic gear train comprising:
a driving gear having a driving gear longitudinal axis, a driving gear periphery and a set of magnets embedded in said driving gear periphery, said set of magnets having alternate polarities; a driving gear axle attached to said driving gear and extending along said driving gear longitudinal axis; a driven gear having a driven gear longitudinal axis, a driven gear periphery and a set of magnets embedded in said periphery, said set of magnets having alternate polarities; a driven gear axle attached to said driven gear and extending along said driven gear longitudinal axis; said driving gear and said driven gear being located for enabling the rotation of said driven gear and said driven gear axle in one direction due to the sequential magnetic interaction of said magnets embedded in said driving gear periphery and the magnets embedded in the driven gear periphery in response to a driving force being applied to said driving axle for rotating said driving gear in the opposite direction of rotation; and wherein when both said driving gear axle and said driven gear axle are parallel with each other and said driving gear and said driven gear are coplanar, forming a coplanar position, so that the driving gear and driven gear respective driving gear and driven gear peripheries are parallel, a pivot axis is located at the midpoint of the axial thickness of the driven gear and driving gear and a midpoint of the distance between the driven gear and driving gear where the magnets of the driven gear and driving gear are closest to each other; said driven gear and said driven gear axle being tiltable with respect to said driving gear and said driving gear axle at said pivot axis with said driven gear assuming a tilting angle with respect to said coplanar position, wherein said driven gear axle has one axial end tilted away from one axial end of said driving gear axle and another axial end tilted toward another axial end of said driving gear axle, when said driven gear is at said tilting angle with respect to said coplanar position, and wherein the tilting angle must be significantly less than 90° to prevent loss of sequential magnetic interaction.