Types of governor | Centrifugal | Intertia |

Governor is known as speed manager OR speed controller. 

They are used in automobile engines to measure and regulate the speed of an engine. It uses gears and flyweights inside the crankcase to detect changes in the load and adjusts the throttle accordingly.

Governor can broadly classify into two types :

1. Centrifugal governor 
2. Inertia governor 

Now let us know brief details about these two types of the governor.

• Centrifugal governor :

This is the most common type of governor. Its action depends on the change in speed. It has a pair of masses, known as governor balls, which rotate with a spindle. The spindle is driven by an engine through bevel gears. 

The action of this governor depends upon the centrifugal effects produced by the governor ball. With the increases in speed, the balls tend to rotate at a greater radius from the axis. This causes the sleeve to slide up on the spindle and this movement of the sleeve is communicated to the throttle through a bell crank lever. This closes the throttle valve to the required extent. When the speed decreases, the governor balls rotate at a smaller radius and the valve is opened according to the requirements. 

Centrifugal governor again classified into two groups :

• Pendulum type governor :

Pendulum type governor is Watt governor. 

• Loaded type governor :

Loaded type governor is Porter governor, Proell governor, Hartnell governor, Wilson Hartnell governor, Hartung governor and Pickering governor. 

• Inertia governor :

In this type of governor, action depends on acceleration. The position of the balls is affected by the forces set up by angular acceleration or deceleration of the given spindle in addition to centrifugal forces on the governor balls. Using suitable linkage and springs, the change in position of the balls is made to open or close the throttle valve. 

Thus, the governor balls are operated by the actual change of engine speed in the case of centrifugal governors, it is by the rate of change of speed in the case of inertia governor. Therefore, the response of inertia governors is faster than that of the centrifugal governor.