Clutch release bearing for concentric slave cylinders

JTEKT Corporation has developed and begun mass-production of a clutch release bearing for concentric slave cylinders (CSC).

With the recent trend toward a greater number of transmission speeds and automatic shift in manual transmission (MT) vehicles, the need has arisen for further compactness of the clutch mechanism. Also, MT vehicles are often used in severe environmental conditions such as the heat and high humidity of Southeast Asia and the extreme cold of Siberia, and clutch mechanisms with more reliable performance in such conditions have been sought.
　It was in response to such needs that JTEKT developed this clutch release bearing for CSC devices installed in the clutch mechanisms of MT vehicles. In developing this bearing, JTEKT aimed to achieve the following three features:

1) Compactness through structural integration with CSC
2) Long life because bearing replacement is not possible
3) High reliability in severe usage environments (hot/humid and severely cold regions)

Normally it is necessary to increase bearing size in order to achieve longer life, but in the case of this CSC clutch release bearing, JTEKT was able to achieve bearing life about three times longer than that of the conventional JTEKT bearing by optimizing bearing design specifications.
　Because this bearing enables a more compact design of the clutch mechanism and improved shift feeling, increased application on MT vehicles in the future is expected.

Appearance of developed product

Bearing appearance