🔍 Key Concepts

• Torque in a friction clutch depends mainly on normal force, friction coefficient, and effective radius of the friction surfaces • In an air clutch, normal force on the friction plates is created by air pressure acting on a piston/diaphragm, assisted or positioned by springs and mechanical adjustments • Study the roles of friction plate #6, spring #4, and nut #22 in the illustration MO-0090 to see which actually changes the applied force versus just position or clearance

💭 Think About

• Which change would directly increase the squeezing force between the driving and driven plates over the full engaged area, instead of merely changing clearance or alignment? • If you made the friction plate thinner, would that increase contact force, decrease it, or mainly affect how far parts move before contact? • Looking at the drawing, which component controls the pressure medium that actually pushes the piston, and which components only set initial position or return force when pressure is removed?

✅ Before You Answer

• Verify which part in the illustration provides the applied engaging force (air vs. spring vs. mechanical stop) • Confirm which option changes the magnitude of normal force on the friction surfaces, not just their spacing or preload • Eliminate any options that would clearly reduce contact area or weaken the engaging force, since these would lower torque capacity