| 摘要 |
A centrifugal clutch having a driven assembly and a driving assembly including articulated clutch shoe assemblies that are spring biased radially inwardly into a nonclutching position by a coiled garter spring. Each clutch shoe assembly comprises a plurality of independent, generally radially extending segments which are operable to overcome the bias of the spring and to individually engage an inner cylindrical surface of a drum comprising a portion of the driven assembly. The segments are assembled for limited relative movement relative to one another and each segment includes an end surface for substantially conformingly engaging the drum surface. Radial and tangential force components are transmitted through each of the clutch shoe segments, to the driven assembly by driving fingers when the segments move outwardly against the spring bias in response to centrifugal force. By reason of the drum surface conforming nature of the end surfaces of each clutch shoe segment and the provision for relative movement therebetween, each clutch shoe assembly may engage the clutching surface of the driven assembly over substantially the entire clutching surface of the shoe as the individual clutch shoe segments independently move outwardly to engage the mating clutching surface of the drum.
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