DESC:Field of Present Invention
The present invention relates to amphibious vehicles. More particularly, the present invention relates to transfer case with a sealing system / arrangements in amphibious vehicle to prevent ingress of water and other foreign particles inside the hull.

Background
For all-wheel drive multi axle, hull based vehicles; the transfer case is positioned above and below the hull plane. The hull of the amphibious vehicles is buoyant and allows operation on land and water. The wheels are used during operation on land and also for cruising in water, propulsion by rotation of wheels. An efficient sealing arrangement is necessary to prevent water penetration inside hull for such vehicles.

Engine of amphibious vehicle is situated inside the hull to protect it from water while the axles are located outside the hull (bolted to hull bottom) along with the propulsion assembly, arranged at the rear end of the hull. The power and torque is distributed to the transmission arrangement through propeller shafts. To achieve this, the input from the engine is transferred to the axles via the transfer case. The Transfer case is thus partially located inside the Hull to receive power/torque from the engine and partially below to distribute power/torque to the axles. An opening in the hull is provided to package the transfer case above and below the hull plane. Sealing arrangement/assembly needs to be provided at the interface to provide water tight Hull compartment.
In a patent document, the disclosure discloses amphibious vehicles and adaptations for making the hull of such vehicles water resistant. Vehicle’s transfer case has been enclosed within the water tight compartment in order to protect it from the effects of water. However, the arrangement of the water tight compartment being disclosed in the patent document is completely different from that of proposed invention disclosure.
In one more patent document, the disclosure reveals a gearbox arrangement for removing a one-piece shaft from a housing without having to disassemble the entire housing. The seal has been placed at a point where the shaft leaves the housing. The seal functions to close off the housing from the outside environment in order to prevent fluid within the housing from leaking out, as well as to protect the inside of the housing from the outside environment. The proposed invention discloses sealing of the transfer case and hull and not the sealing of the shaft.
In another patent publication, the disclosure focuses on a transfer case. The transfer case includes front and rear housing. A seal or gasket is positioned between the two flanges which are secured to each other by fasteners, thus sealing the front and rear housing.
In view of the above, there is need provide a transfer case with effective seal proof provisions which are easy in mounting with lesser constraint with respect to the shape of the hull.

Object of the Present Invention
A principal object of the present invention is to overcome at least one of above problems.
The main object of the present invention is to provide a transfer case with a sealing arrangement.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a transfer case with sealing arrangement for the use in amphibious vehicles so as to prevent ingress of water and other foreign particles inside the hull.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a transfer case with sealing arrangement which can be fitted in the vehicle irrespective to the shape of hull / cutout profile provide therein.

Summary
The present invention provides a transfer case with a sealing arrangement for amphibious vehicles to prevent entry of water and other undesirable particles into the hull. The water-tight sealing assembly comprises a sealing interface and adapter ring. The adapter ring may be divided in two separate parts i.e. first part and second part. The adapter ring is mounted on flange of transfer case housing sandwiching the sealing interface therebetween. The adapter ring may be mounted with the help of suitable fasteners. The sealing assembly is assembled on transfer case and the hull to provide a waterproof joint. The bottom portion of the transfer case remains submerged inside the water, while the vehicle is operating over the water surface. Transfer case transfers the power and torque from engine to the transmission system through drive shafts. The interface of the sealing assembly provides the water tight penetration points into the hull compartment. The interface is selected in such a manner that it facilitates to get more submerged volume.

Brief Description of the Accompanying Drawings
The present invention itself, however, as well as a preferred mode of use, further objectives and advantages thereof, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying figures. One or more embodiments are now described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying figures wherein like reference numerals represent like elements and in which:
Figs. 1 and 2 illustrate a perspective view of a transfer case with sealing assembly including a rubber seal (2) according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3 shows schematic of sequential operations of mounting of adapter rings onto the transfer case according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 4 shows schematic of sequential operations of mounting of rubber seal and seal holding rinds for holding the adapter rings according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 5 shows schematic of sequential operations of mounting of seal holding rings for hull surface according to an embodiment to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figs. 6a and 6b shows perspective views of the front housing provided with a sealing interface with fastening arrangement provided on a flanged portion of the front housing according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figs. 7a and 7b shows perspective views of the rear housing provided with a sealing interface with fastening arrangement provided on a flanged portion of the rear housing according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Figs 8a and 8b shows front and rear views of transfer case integrated with axle central unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 9 shows a transfer case with sealing assembly viewed from vehicle front according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 10 shows a transfer case with sealing assembly viewed from vehicle rear according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 11 shows an exploded view of the transfer case with sealing assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Detail Description
The foregoing has broadly outlined the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the present invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the present invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the present invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the present invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention. Referring to the drawings wherein the descriptions are for the purpose of illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention only, and not for the purpose of limiting the same.
Reference will now be made to the exemplary embodiments of the disclosure, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible same numerals will be used to refer to the same or like parts.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a transfer case for vehicle comprising transfer case housing comprising flange portion at predetermined location; a sealing interface provided on the flange portion; at least an adapter ring mounted on the said sealing interface; and at least a sealing element being mounted on the adapter ring so as to provide an effective sealed packaging in the transfer case to prevent ingress of water and other foreign particles.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the said flange portion being provided in such a way that the flange portion forms a ring along the periphery of the transfer case housing at predetermined location.
In one more embodiment of the present invention, the said flange portion being provided with fastening provisions thereon.
In another embodiment of the present invention, said adapter ring being splited in two portion, a first and second portion.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, said sealing element being a rubber seal.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, said transfer case provided with a holding ring for mounting rubber seal on the adapter ring.
In another embodiment of the present invention, said rubber seal has shape and size in conformity with shape and size of the outer periphery of the adapter ring.
In still another embodiment of the present invention, said transfer case being mounted in hull of the vehicle.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the said transfer case being used in amphibious vehicle.
In another embodiment of the present invention, said sealing interface being provided on circumferential surface of the flange portion.
The transfer case for vehicle is provided with a sealing arrangements for amphibious vehicles so as to prevent water penetration inside hull for such vehicles according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring Figs. 1 and 2 depicts view of the transfer case with sealing assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is to be noted that for all-wheel drive multi axle, hull based vehicles; the transfer case is positioned above and below the hull plane. The hull of the amphibious vehicles is buoyant and allows operation on land and water. The wheels are used during operation on land and also for cruising in water, propulsion by rotation of wheels. Therefore, an efficient sealing assembly may be provided with transfer case to prevent entry of water and other undesirable particles inside the hull for such vehicles. The transfer case is mounted with the vehicle, inside of hull of an amphibious vehicle comprising the transfer case according to an embodiment of the present invention. A water-tight sealing assembly comprises various metal brackets, gaskets and sealing rubber. The sealing assembly is assembled on transfer case and the hull to provide a waterproof joint. The bottom portion of the transfer case remains submerged inside the water, as shown in Figs. 9 and 10, while the vehicle is operating over the water surface. Transfer case transfers the power and torque from engine to the transmission system through drive shafts. The interface of the sealing assembly provides the water tight penetration points into the hull compartment. The interface is selected in such a manner that, it will help to get more submerged volume. An exploded view of the transfer case with sealing assembly may be seen in fig. 11 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring Fig. 3, a sequential operations of mounting of adapter rings (1a, 1b) onto the transfer case is depicted according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention. The adapter ring (1) may be split into two separate parts (1a and 1b) facing each other according to an embodiment of the present invention. Further, upon assembly the two separate parts become the continuous so as to form a closed adapter ring (1). The adapter ring (1) is mounted on fastening provision provided on flanges of the transfer case housing. The said flange is provided with a sealing interface with fastening arrangement on its circumferential surface as shown in figures 3, 5, 6, 7. The flange portion is provided at a predetermined location on the transfer case housing. The flange portion is provided in such a way that it surround the transfer case housing like a ring as shown in figs. 6-8. The figs. 6a and 6b shows the sealing interface provided on front side of the transfer case housing while Figs. 7a and 7b illustrates the rear side of the transfer case housing comprising the sealing interface with fastening arrangement according to an embodiment of the present invention. Further, Figs 8a and 8b illustrates front and rear views of transfer case integrated with axle central unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. The integrated portions are indicated by portions A and B. The adapter ring (1) is provided to reduce the gap between the hull and the transfer case keeping the same opening cutout on the hull. The shape and size of the adapter ring (1) may vary according to the requirement of the user.

Now referring to Fig. 4, the sequential operations of mounting of sealing element or rubber seal (2) and first seal holding rings (3) for holding the adapter rings is depicted according to an embodiment of the present invention. In an exemplary embodiment, the rubber seal (2) made be made of a square ring as shown in fig. 4. The shape and size of the rubber seal (2) may be made in conformity with the shape and size of the outer periphery of the adapter ring (1). In other words, the rubber seal (2) and adapter ring (1) are may be made of similar shape and size as shown in fig. 4. The rubber seal (2) is mounted on adapter ring (1) using seal holding ring (3) and suitable fastener.
Referring Fig. 5, a sequential operations of mounting of transfer case along with rubber seal (2) with the hull surface is depicted according to an embodiment to an embodiment of the present invention. The transfer case is inserted along with the adapter rings (1) and rubber seal (2) from bottom of the hull. Thereafter, the rubber seal (2) is mounted with hull surface with the help of a second seal holding ring(s) (4). The rubber seal (2) is mounted with the second seal holding ring (4) using suitable fasteners.

The transfer case is mounted with the vehicle. The transfer case partially resides in hull and partially outside the hull. Such kind of arrangement can be seen in Figs. 9 and 10. For explanation purpose of the present invention, the transfer case is divided in two parts by a line ‘X’. The portion above the line ‘X’ is first portion of the case transfer i.e. upper portion which resides in the hull while the portion below the line ‘X’ is the second portion i.e. lower portion which remains outside the hull. The lower portion or second portion of the transfer case is exposed to atmosphere when the vehicle runs on ground and the same portion submerged in water when the vehicle is in the water. The line ‘X’ may be considered at a location where the rubber seal (2) provided on the transfer case according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Advantages

The primary advantage of the present invention is to provide a sealing assembly in a two piece construction of sealing without hampering internal construction of transfer case.

One more advantage of the present invention is that the sealing assembly prevents the entry of water and other outside particles inside the hull.

In another advantage of the present invention, the sealing assembly provides the advantage for placing the transfer case suitably at hull surface. At the same time, this will give the flexibility at the interface due to the flexible members. In addition, the sealing assembly is capable of working under high water pressure during the amphibian mode.

In still another advantage of the present invention, the sealing assembly provides advantage that the same transfer case can be used in short wheel base vehicles with 6x6 and 8x8 variants. This can go on amphibious and non-amphibious variants of vehicles.

In yet another advantage of the present invention, the sealing assembly is a modular concept and is not dependent on hull shape / cutout profile. The same sealing scheme/assembly can be extended on any type of hull with minor changes.

In another advantage of the present invention, the sealing assembly provides a self-reliant technology, which can be implemented on various special requirements in the future, reducing / eliminating need to go to suppliers. This will also reduce the cash outflow.

With respect to the use of substantially any plural and/or singular terms herein, those having skill in the art can translate from the plural to the singular and/or from the singular to the plural as is appropriate to the context and/or application. The various singular/plural permutations may be expressly set forth herein for sake of clarity.

It will be understood by those within the art that, in general, terms used herein, and especially in the appended claims (e.g., bodies of the appended claims) are generally intended as "open" terms (e.g., the term "including" should be interpreted as "including but not limited to," the term "having" should be interpreted as "having at least," the term "includes" should be interpreted as "includes but is not limited to," etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is intended, such an intent will be explicitly recited in the claim, and in the absence of such recitation no such intent is present. For example, as an aid to understanding, the following appended claims may contain usage of the introductory phrases "at least one" and "one or more" to introduce claim recitations. However, the use of such phrases should not be construed to imply that the introduction of a claim recitation by the indefinite articles "a" or "an" limits any particular claim containing such introduced claim recitation to inventions containing only one such recitation, even when the same claim includes the introductory phrases "one or more" or "at least one" and indefinite articles such as "a" or "an" (e.g., "a" and/or "an" should typically be interpreted to mean "at least one" or "one or more"); the same holds true for the use of definite articles used to introduce claim recitations. In addition, even if a specific number of an introduced claim recitation is explicitly recited, those skilled in the art will recognize that such recitation should typically be interpreted to mean at least the recited number (e.g., the bare recitation of "two recitations," without other modifiers, typically means at least two recitations, or two or more recitations). Furthermore, in those instances where a convention analogous to "at least one of A, B, and C, etc." is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B, and C" would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). In those instances where a convention analogous to "at least one of A, B, or C, etc." is used, in general such a construction is intended in the sense one having skill in the art would understand the convention (e.g., "a system having at least one of A, B, or C" would include but not be limited to systems that have A alone, B alone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, and/or A, B, and C together, etc.). It will be further understood by those within the art that virtually any disjunctive word and/or phrase presenting two or more alternative terms, whether in the description, claims, or drawings, should be understood to contemplate the possibilities of including one of the terms, either of the terms, or both terms. For example, the phrase "A or B" will be understood to include the possibilities of "A" or "B" or "A and B."

The foregoing description is a specific embodiment of the prevent invention. It should be appreciated that this embodiment is described for the purpose of illustration only and that numerous alteration and modification may be practiced by those skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It is intended that all such modification and alteration included in so far as they come within the scope of the invention as clamped the equivalent thereof.


Referral Numerals

Referral Numerals Description
1 Adapter ring
1a, 1b First and second separate parts of the adapter ring
2 Sealing element/ Rubber seal
3 Sealing holding ring for adapters
4 Sealing holding ring for hull surface
5 Packaging Shim
6 Sealing Gasket
A, B Portions at which transfer case and axle central unit is connected

,CLAIMS:We claim:
1. A transfer case for vehicle comprises:
a transfer case housing comprising flange portion at predetermined location;
a sealing interface provided on the flange portion;
at least an adapter ring mounted on the said sealing interface; and
at least a sealing element being mounted on the adapter ring so as to provide an effective sealed packaging in the transfer case to prevent ingress of water and other foreign particles.
2. The transfer case as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said flange portion being provided in such a way that the flange portion forms a ring along the periphery of the transfer case housing at predetermined location.
3. The transfer case as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said flange portion being provided with fastening provisions thereon.
4. The transfer case as claimed in claim 1, wherein said adapter ring being splited in two portion, a first and second portion.
5. The transfer case as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sealing element being a rubber seal.
6. The transfer case as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transfer case provided with a holding ring for mounting rubber seal on the adapter ring.
7. The transfer case as claimed in claim 5, wherein said rubber seal has shape and size in conformity with shape and size of the outer periphery of the adapter ring.
8. The transfer case as claimed in claim 1, wherein said sealing interface being provided on circumferential surface of the flange portion.
9. The transfer case as claimed in claim 1, wherein said transfer case being mounted in hull of the vehicle.
10. The transfer case as claimed in claim 1, wherein the said transfer case being used in amphibious vehicle.