Positive engagement clutch with soft engagement motion

Abstract From the Canadian patent

To place a driven shaft in accurate angular alignment with respect to a continuously rotating driving shaft or selectively, with respect to a fixed reference, the fixed reference is formed as a housing, the driving shaft has a disk with a cam track attached thereto, and the housing likewise has a disk with a cam track. The driven shaft has an engagement pin connected thereto, axially slidable and engageable respectively, with the cam tracks of the driving shaft or of the housing. The cam tracks are arranged to carry along and gradually accelerate the pin coupled to the driven shaft until the pin locks at a predetermined position in the cam track to define the relative angular position of …