DEVELOPMENT OF THE VARIABLE FRICTION CLUTCH APPLYING THE FUNCTIONAL MEDIUM

A new functional material known as electro-rheological gel (ERG) has been developed that has variable surface friction according to an applied electric field. It was expected that ERG could be applied to a machine element, because the frictional force of an ERG surface can be controlled electrically. In this study, an ERG clutch element, using the one-sided electrode configuration, was developed and the performance of the ERG clutch was numerically and experimentally evaluated. The ERG clutch shows excellent performance for static and dynamic characteristics in torque transfer