American Axle files patent application for differential assembly with features for improved lubrication

U.S.-based American Axle & Manufacturing Inc. (AAM) filed a patent application for differential assembly with features for improved lubrication on January 12, 2011. The inventors are Mark Alan Harnden, Daniel Gatti Corless and Mark Stephen Waack. The company, with headquarters in Detroit, Michigan, is a manufacturer of automobile driveline and drivetrain components and systems.
According to the U.S. Controller General of Patents, Designs & Trade Marks, “An axle assembly includes an axle housing assembly including a housing structure having an interior cavity with a sump, a lubricant disposed in the sump having a liquid lubricant level, and a differential mounted in the axle housing assembly for rotation about a first axis. The differential includes a ring gear generating an annular stream of lubricant adjoining the ring gear above the liquid lubricant level during operation of the differential at a rotational speed greater than a predetermined rotational speed. The housing structure includes an interior surface on which a deflector is coupled. The deflector extends into the interior cavity and has a first face having an impingement portion and a first edge adjacent the impingement portion. The impingement portion extends into the stream and deflects a portion of the stream towards the first edge. The first edge disperses the portion of the stream into the cavity.” (September 2, 2012)