Oscillating and continuous motion gear drive assembly

摘要

The present invention pertains to a gear drive assembly that will allow components that are not capable of continuous rotation to be coupled to a component that is capable of continuous rotation. The drive gear assembly includes a drive gear component which is actually comprised of two gear sectors, one used to mesh and drive a driven gear directly and the other used to drive the driven gear in a reverse direction through a reversing cluster gear arrangement. The drive gear sectors are arranged so that when one sector is coupled and driving the driven gear, the other sector is decoupled, and vice-versa. Gear jamming is prevented by properly timing the coupling and decoupling of the drive gear sectors with the driven gear and the reversing cluster gear arrangement. In addition, where gear teeth pairs clash during coupling, provision is made to allow one gear tooth of the clashing pair to deflect and allow passage of the other gear tooth to the proper position. Therefore, the gear drive assembly of the present invention permits constant rotary motion of the drive gear component in either direction while resulting in an oscillating motion of the driven gear component.