Depth of Clutch

You must have heard about clutch a lot and if you are a driver of the manual transmission vehicle, you must also know its importance.
Clutch is a device used in automotive vehicles which are used for connecting and disconnecting an engine to the transmission of a vehicle. The clutch is not only used in automobiles but in various other devices also which need disengagement of power from the transmission like some drilling machines.



Clutch usually consists of 3 main parts which are flywheel, clutch disc, and pressure plate. Typical working of the clutch is to transmit power from one shaft to another shaft when required. Machines don’t always require continuous torque input due to which there is need of disengaging torque from the output without actually turning off input, this is the moment where clutches come into work.

Clutch Disc is the heart, the flywheel is the body and pressure plate is the skeleton of the whole clutch. This analogy sets to be perfect because pressure plates are used to hold the clutch disc with the flywheel. When the pedal of the clutch is pressed, the force is forwarded to the pressure plates which further press clutch disc to flywheel engaging flywheel and clutch disc and further engaging transmission to the engine shaft which lets tires (connected with transmission) to rotate at the same speed of the engine.

There are different types of clutches used in different vehicles according to the need of the vehicle. Friction Clutches are used in common vehicles because of use of friction in plates.

Types of Friction Clutches are:
Single plate clutch
Multi-plate clutch
Semi-centrifugal clutch
Centrifugal clutch
Cone clutch

 

Most used clutches are Single-plate and Multi-plate clutches all over the world. Let’s discuss further both in detail.

Single-Plate Clutch:
Single plate clutches are used in cars and most of four vehicles. These are used where large power needs to be transferred and since large power is being transmitted, a larger disc is used and hence it occupies more space which is available in cars rather than motorbikes. Working is explained in an easy language in the below youtube video.

Multi-Plate Clutch:
Multi-plate clutches are used in motorbikes and two-wheeler vehicles where smaller size of the clutch can be used due to less space. These are smaller in size but they use multiple numbers of clutch plates and separator plates and hence the name. The meshing of these plates with the help of friction engages the whole clutch and power is connected to the transmission. Below youtube video explains the working nicely.