A dog clutch connects and disconnects rotating shafts or machine parts using evenly spaced teeth or protrusions. It allows for strong mechanical fit without slippage, but lacks torque control. It is commonly used in manual gearboxes, marine drives, heavy machinery, and pull start systems.
A dog clutch is a mechanism used to connect and disconnect two rotating shafts or machine parts. It works by mating a set of evenly spaced teeth or protrusions on one half of the clutch mechanism to a set of identical recesses on the other, rather than using the friction principle used in other clutches. This has the advantage of allowing both shafts to turn at the same speed without slipping and with minimal clutch wear. However, they cannot be used to control torque as is the case with a friction clutch. Dog clutches are commonly used in manual or lever shift automobile gearboxes, marine propeller drives, and on the drives of heavy machinery.
This type of clutch typically consists of two round discs, one fixed to the driving shaft and one to the driven shaft. One of the plates has a series of evenly spaced protrusions worked into its face, resembling the battlements atop a castle wall. The other has an identical set of similarly sized hollows cut into its face. When the two plates are brought together, the protrusions mate or fit into the recesses, thus effectively joining the shafts and transferring rotary motion from one to the other. This ensures a strong mechanical fit between the two components without sliding characteristics.
Due to the lack of slippage, the clutch mechanism is not subject to the amount of wear and tear encountered with friction clutches. However, it does not allow for the soft start of the drive process and the resulting torque control that a friction clutch does since the drive engagement is immediate. This type of clutch arrangement allows for a strong and reliable transfer of rotary motion between components using a minimum of moving parts and the maintenance of constant shaft speeds.
One of the most common uses of a dog clutch is to engage the drive of individual gears in a manual transmission in an automobile. When several gears are selected in this application, a synchromesh system allows the transmission and selected gears to mesh smoothly. Most outboard motors and marine outboard motors use clutches of this type in their gears as do the hub gear assemblies on bicycles. Oversized arrangements are also commonly used in the main and auxiliary drives of heavy machinery, such as excavators, where no clutch slippage is essential. Another well known use of this type of clutch is the pull start system on petrol engines.
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