Structure And Function Of Universal Joint

The structure and function of the universal joint are somewhat like the joints on human limbs. It allows the included angle between the connected parts to change within a certain range. In order to meet the requirements of power transmission, adapt to the angle changes caused by up and down runout during steering and vehicle operation, universal joints are often used between the drive axle, half shaft and wheel axle of front drive vehicles. However, due to the limitation of axial size, the deflection angle is required to be relatively large. A single universal joint cannot make the instantaneous angular velocity of the output shaft and the shaft into the shaft equal, which is easy to cause vibration, aggravate the damage of components, and generate a lot of noise. Therefore, various constant velocity universal joints are widely used. On front drive vehicles, each axle shaft uses two constant velocity universal joints. The universal joint near the transaxle is the inner universal joint of the axle shaft, and the outer universal joint of the axle shaft is near the axle shaft. On the rear drive vehicle, the engine, clutch and transmission are installed on the frame as a whole, and the drive axle is connected to the frame through elastic suspension. There is a distance between the two and they need to be connected. When the vehicle is running, if the road surface is uneven, the jumping, load change or the difference between the two assemblies will change the included angle and distance between the transmission output shaft and the input shaft of the drive axle final reducer. Therefore, double universal joints are used in the rear drive vehicles. That is, there is a universal joint at both ends of the transmission shaft, which is used to make the included angle at both ends of the transmission shaft equal, Thus, the instantaneous angular velocity of output shaft and input shaft is always equal.