1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a clutch release arrangement, particularly for a clutch in a motor vehicle, including a master cylinder for a hydraulic system, a pedal for actuating the master cylinder to disengage the clutch, and an articulated energy accumulator which stores energy when the clutch is engaged and provides a boosting force which reduces the actuating force when the clutch is disengaged.
2. Description of the Related Art
Release arrangements of this type are frequently used in modern hydraulically actuated clutches and are known from practice. The energy accumulator has a spring which holds the pedal in its basic position or at least reinforces a force holding the pedal. When the pedal is depressed, the spring is pretensioned slightly. In so doing, the spring swivels until its point of application of force at the pedal goes beyond a dead center and reinforces the movements of the pedal by an added force on the pedal path following the dead center. This enables a reduction in the force expended when depressing the pedal, at least along the path following the top dead center, where the energy accumulator adds its energy as a boosting force to the pedal force.
Due to the articulation of the energy accumulator at the pedal, in particular as an over-center spring, the pedal force on the second half of the pedal path can be noticeably reduced in order to be able to overcome more easily the spring acting in the clutch of the motor vehicle, particularly at the end of the pedal path. However, known kinematic couplings of energy accumulators with a clutch pedal have shown themselves to be in need of improvement for certain applications. Above all, it is disadvantageous that the path of the force reinforcing the pedal force can not only be adjusted in height with sufficient accuracy, the variability of the reinforcement force along the pedal path can also not be adapted to the requirements of the pedal force on the pedal path. For example, when the maximum force should be further reduced, this can only be done in the known solution by increasing the force for depressing the pedal.