Studies on centrifugal clutch of frictional lining materials

Using the Taguchi method, a 5-factorial, 3-level orthogonal array (L'18 (3⁵)) was used as the experimental layout for 18 kinds of frictional lining specimen. These specimens were prepared in order to investigate their performance in establish a relationship between T_s/T_d (T_s: static torque; T_d: dynamic torque) and dμ /dν_x (μ : friction coefficient; ν_x: relative velocity of frictional lining and clutch drum) parameters. The frictional torque and the rotational speeds of the driveline, clutch, and clutch drum as functions of contact time for 100 clutch cycles are experimentally obtained dμ /dν_x and T_s/T_d. In the study, a sharp rise in maximum contact pressure ratio occurred when the relative sliding velocity reached the critical velocity, V_c. This increase in maximum contact pressure ratio generally led to an increase of the (initially negative) dμ /dν_x value. The mean values of dμ /dν_x and T_s/T_d for the clutching tests with 100 cycles can be roughly divided into three groups dependent on the fluctuation intensities of these two parameters, for each of which there is a linear relationship. The maximum contact pressure ratio significantly increases even increasing the mean value of dμ /dν_x.