Axle assembly having a gear reduction unit and an interaxle differential unit

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10364872-B2
Application number	US-201715785537-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 17, 2017
Priority date	Oct 17, 2017
Publication date	Jul 30, 2019
Grant date	Jul 30, 2019

Abstract

An axle assembly having a gear reduction unit and an interaxle differential unit. The gear reduction unit may be operatively connected to an input shaft and may selectively provide gear reduction to a differential assembly and the interaxle differential unit. The interaxle differential unit may operatively connect the gear reduction unit to the output shaft.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An axle assembly comprising:
a housing assembly that receives a differential assembly;
an input shaft that is at least partially received in the housing assembly and is rotatable about a first axis;
a gear reduction unit that is operatively connected to the input shaft, wherein the gear reduction unit includes a planetary gear set that has a sun gear and a planetary ring gear that are rotatable about the first axis and a planet carrier that rotatably supports a planet pinion that is in meshing engagement with the sun gear and the planetary ring gear, wherein the planetary ring gear is selectively rotatable about the first axis;
a first coupling that is moveable between a first position in which the planetary ring gear is coupled to the housing assembly such that the planetary ring gear does not rotate about the first axis and a second position in which the planetary ring gear is not coupled to the housing assembly and is rotatable about the first axis; and
an interaxle differential unit that is at least partially received in the planet carrier and that operatively connects the planetary gear set to the differential assembly and an output shaft.

2. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the first coupling couples the planetary ring gear to the planet carrier when in the second position such that the planet carrier and the planetary ring gear are rotatable together about the first axis.

3. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the first coupling couples the planetary ring gear to the sun gear when in the second position such that the sun gear and the planetary ring gear are rotatable together about the first axis.

4. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the first coupling is received in a support flange that is fixedly positioned with respect to the planetary ring gear and is moveable along the first axis with respect to the support flange.

5. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the housing assembly has a support that extends radially inward toward the first axis and the planetary ring gear is axially positioned between the support and at least a portion of the planet carrier.

6. The axle assembly of claim 5 wherein the support extends around the first axis and the planet carrier is axially positioned between the support and the output shaft.

7. The axle assembly of claim 5 further comprising a support flange that extends from the planetary ring gear, wherein the support flange is rotatably supported by a roller bearing assembly that extends from the support to the planetary ring gear.

8. The axle assembly of claim 7 wherein the support flange is received in the roller bearing assembly and the roller bearing assembly is received in the support flange.

9. The axle assembly of claim 8 wherein the support flange has an outer wall that extends from the planetary ring gear, an intermediate wall that extends from the outer wall toward the first axis, and an inner wall that extends from the intermediate wall in a direction that extends away from the planet carrier, wherein the inner wall is received in the roller bearing assembly.

10. The axle assembly of claim 9 wherein a set of support flange teeth extends from the inner wall toward the first axis, wherein a coupling spline of the first coupling meshes with the set of support flange teeth when the first coupling is in the first position and the second position.

11. The axle assembly of claim 10 wherein the planet carrier further comprises a planet carrier ring that is fixedly disposed on pins that extend from the planet carrier and is disposed inside the planetary ring gear, wherein the planet carrier ring has a set of planet carrier ring teeth that face toward the first axis, wherein the coupling spline of the first coupling meshes with the set of planet carrier ring teeth when the first coupling is in the second position but not when the first coupling is in the first position.

12. The axle assembly of claim 11 wherein the first coupling meshes with the set of planet carrier ring teeth and the set of support flange teeth when the first coupling is in the second position.

13. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the input shaft extends through the first coupling.

14. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the first coupling moves along the first axis toward the interaxle differential unit when the first coupling moves from the first position to the second position.

15. The axle assembly of claim 1 further comprising a drive pinion that provides torque to the differential assembly and is rotatable about the first axis and is operatively connected to the interaxle differential unit, and the output shaft that is received in the drive pinion and is rotatable about the first axis, wherein the interaxle differential unit operatively connects the gear reduction unit to the drive pinion and the output shaft.

16. The axle assembly of claim 1 further comprising a drive gear that is rotatable about the first axis and is operatively connected to the interaxle differential unit, a driven gear that meshes with the drive gear and is rotatable about a third axis, and a drive pinion that is rotatable about the third axis to provides torque to the differential assembly.

17. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the planetary gear set provides gear reduction from the input shaft to the output shaft and the differential assembly when the planetary ring gear is in the first position.

18. The axle assembly of claim 17 wherein the planetary gear set does not provide gear reduction from the input shaft to the output shaft and the differential assembly when the planetary ring gear is in the second position.

19. The axle assembly of claim 1 wherein the housing assembly has a housing face gear that is arranged around the input shaft, and the first coupling has a coupling gear that is disposed at an end of the first coupling and that has a set of teeth that extend in an axial direction away from the planetary gear set, wherein the coupling gear mates with the housing face gear to inhibit rotation of the planetary ring gear about the first axis when the first coupling is in the first position.

20. The axle assembly of claim 19 wherein the coupling gear is spaced apart from the housing face gear to permit rotation of the planetary ring gear about the first axis when the first coupling is in the second position.

Assignees

• Arvinmeritor Technology Llc

Inventors

• Keeney Christopher
• Eschenburg Dale

Classifications

• F16D2023/141

  characterised by using a fork; Details of forks · CPC title

• F16D11/10

  with clutching members movable only axially · CPC title

• F16D2011/004

  using an internal or intermediate axially slidable sleeve, coupling both components together, whereby the intermediate sleeve is arranged internally at least with respect to one of the components · CPC title

• F16H48/08

  comprising bevel gears · CPC title

• B60K23/08

  for changing number of driven wheels {, for switching from driving one axle to driving two or more axles (B60K17/3515 takes precedence)} · CPC title