Winch

An electric winch for automobile is a vehicle-carried apparatus used for vehicle rescue, loading/unloading, or cargo lifting etc, which can be mounted on an engineering vehicle, an off road vehicle, SUV sports vehicle, etc.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,567 discloses one example of a winch known in the related art. The power transmission device of the above conventional winch employs a multi-stage series-connected planetary mechanism to achieve deceleration function withlarge speed ratio and has a complicated structure.

However, the power transmission device of the conventional winch has a complicated structure with low transmission efficiency. Thus, the self-weight of the winch and the number of the components thereof increase accordingly. In addition, themanufacturing and assembling of the winch are complicated with high cost.
U.S. Pat. No. Re. 36,216 discloses another example of a winch known in the related art. However, the braking mechanism of the winch is very complicated. Therefore, manufacturing and assembling of winch are complicated, the cost and failurerate thereof are high. In addition, the maintenance is difficult with high cost.
The present invention is intended to resolve at least one of the technical problems occurring in the conventional winch. Therefore, one object of the present invention is to provide a winch in which a power transmission device employs a singlestage planetary mechanism to achieve deceleration function with large speed ratio. In addition, the transmission efficiency of the present invention is high, the structure is simple, the weight is light and the cost is low.

The winch according to one embodiment of the present invention includes a drum defining an axial central hole and being rotatable about a longitudinal axis of the axial central hole. A motor is longitudinally disposed at an end of the drum, anda power transmission device is longitudinally disposed at the other end of the drum and operatively connected to the motor and the drum respectively. The power transmission device includes a casing mounted at the other end of the drum. A transmissiongear shaft extends longitudinally in the axial central hole of the drum where a proximal end of the transmission gear shaft is connected to the motor and a distal end thereof is provided with a transmission gear and extends into the casing. The winchalso includes a planetary mechanism assembly having first and second planetary carriers that are disposed in the casing and rotatable about the longitudinal axis. First to third planetary gears are rotatably supported on the first and second planetarycarriers via first to the third planetary gear shafts and engaged with the transmission gear, respectively. An annular gear is fixed in the casing and engaged with the first to third planetary gears respectively. A power output member is disposed inthe casing, rotatable about the longitudinal axis and formed with an input gear portion and an output gear portion. The input gear portion engages with the first to third planetary gears respectively, and the output gear portion engages with the drum.

The power transmission device of the winch according to embodiments of the present invention achieves deceleration function with large speed ratio by employing a single stage planetary mechanism. In addition, the transmission efficiency is high,the structure is simple, the weight is light and the cost is low.

Each of the first to third planetary gears is divided into two portions in axial direction so that the transmission gear and the planetary gears can be conveniently engaged with or disengaged from each other through moving the transmission gearshaft, thus easily achieving the engaging/disengaging function of the winch.
In addition, the fixing strength of the annular gear in the casing can be increased by forming the casing gear portion to be engaged with the annular gear, thus preventing the annular gear from being unintentionally moved.

The braking device of the winch according to embodiments of the present invention has a simple structure with low manufacturing cost and reliable braking capability, and is not apt to fail.

Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will be readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood while reading the subsequent description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

The present invention has been described in an illustrative manner. It is to be understood that the terminology that has been used is intended to be in the nature of words of description rather than of limitation. Many modifications andvariations of the present invention are possible in light of the above teachings. Therefore, within the scope of the appended claims, the present invention may be practiced other than as specifically described.