Free Republic

The efficiency of a tooth-on-tooth geared transmission, with the smoothly variable gear ratios of a CVT – minus the belt friction and capable of going all the way down to a zero ratio without needing a clutch. That's a 'holy grail' level promise! Italian company Alter Ego, led by mechanical and automation engineer Edyson Pavilcu and assisted by kinematic studies undertaken at the Milan Technical University, says it's prototyped a beautifully complex new mechanism – the world's first geared CVT – that's 10% more efficient than a regular belted CVT. Indeed, the efficiency is on par with some manual transmissions,...

TAMPA — Transportation planners are preparing to use new technology to try to solve an old problem — traffic crashes and congestion on Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando. The state Department of Transportation is designing a corridor management system that will relay real time information directly to motorists about congestion, accidents, work zones, weather warnings and even end-of-the-traffic-back-up locations on I-4 and alternate routes. The idea behind so-called connected vehicle technology is to improve traffic flow on the interstate and east-west alternatives without adding new lanes or acquiring new right of way. On Wednesday, Hillsborough’s Metropolitan Planning Organization —...

Engineers at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have developed a continuously variable transmission based on a cam and a planetary gearset that might increase fuel efficiency 3-5%. Much work has gone into the field of continuously variable transmissions, which can be categorized as traction, belt, ratcheting and hydrostatic drives. The new cam-based system is a ratcheting drive type. Ratcheting drives take rotational input, convert it to an oscillating motion of varying amplitude, and then rectify this motion through a number of one-way clutches to a rotational output. One of the distinctive attributes of the new transmission developed...