The clutch actuator is located in the flywheel housing between the engine and the gearbox. The clutch assembly is fixed on the rear plane of the flywheel with screws. The output shaft of the clutch is the input shaft of the gearbox. During the driving of the car, the driver can step on or release the clutch pedal as needed to temporarily separate and gradually engage the engine and the gearbox, so as to cut off or transmit the power input from the engine to the transmission. The roles of the clutch actuator are as follows.
The car is at a standstill before starting. Once the gear is engaged, it will suddenly rush forward due to the sudden connection of power in the case of a rigid connection between the engine and the gearbox. That will not only cause damage to the mechanical parts but also a sharp drop in the engine speed or a stall because the driving force will not be enough to overcome the resulting huge inertial force generated by a car rushing forward. By inference, the car can start smoothly when it gets enough driving force. If the clutch actuator can be used to temporarily separate the engine and the gearbox when starting, and then the clutch is gradually engaged, the torque transmitted by the clutch can be gradually increased from zero, so as to gradually increase the driving force due to the friction between the active part and the driven part of the clutch.
a. During the driving process of the car, different gearbox positions are often used to adapt to changing driving conditions. If there is no clutch actuator to temporarily separate the engine and the gearbox, the power transmission gears engaged in the gearbox will be difficult to separate due to the large pressure between the meshing tooth surfaces caused by the load not be removed. The other gear to be meshed will be difficult to mesh because of the unequal peripheral speed of the two. Even if it enters the mesh forcibly, it will produce a great impact on the tooth end, which is easy to damage the machine parts.
b. After using the transmission clutch actuator to temporarily separate the engine and the gearbox to shift , the original pair of gears that meshed will be easily separated thanks to the removed load and greatly reduced pressure between the meshing surfaces. As for the other pair of gears to be meshed, since the driving gear is separated from the engine, the moment of inertia is very small. Using a suitable shift action can make the peripheral speeds of the gears to be meshed equal or nearly equal, thereby avoiding or reducing the impact between the gears.
When the car brakes in an emergency and the wheels suddenly slow down, the drive system connected to the engine still maintains the original speed due to the rotating inertia. This often produces a moment of inertia in the drive system that is much greater than the engine torque, which makes the drive system parts easily get damaged. Since the clutch actuator transmits torque by friction, when the load in the drive train exceeds the torque that can be transmitted by the friction, the driving and driven parts of the clutch will automatically slip to achieve the goal of preventing the overload of the drive system.
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