| 摘要 |
A viscous fluid clutch includes a housing rotatably mounted to a drive shaft and a clutch plate attached to the drive shaft. These relatively rotatable members have a fluid shear space therebetween and cooperable with a fluid medium in the shear space to provide a shear-type fluid drive therebetween. The housing includes a reservoir, an operating chamber and a pump outlet opening communicating between the operating chamber and the reservoir. An annular wall is secured at its inner and outer peripheral edges to the clutch plate and includes an annular bend between the outer and inner peripheral edges to define an annular auxiliary reservoir in cooperation with the clutch plate. The housing has an annular recess accommodating the annular bend. The annular recess is defined by a conical surface increasing its radial distance from the axis of rotation of the drive shaft. This conical surface and the opposed surface of the annular bend define therebetween an annular passage communicating with the operating chamber. The annular bend is formed with radial openings adjacent the operating chamber. With this arrangement, during rotation of the drive shaft, the fluid medium thrown outwardly from the auxiliary reservoir, owing to the centrifugal force, through the radial opening into the annular passage will flow along the conical surface into the operating chamber.
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