[unclehan]

http://www.andersoncvt.com

A guy patented this new tranny. But I can't picture it ever being used in real life. Too much flaws

What do you guys think of it in terms of efficiency/durability/practicality?

I personally can't see it ever being used in even a car, let alone heavy trucks or other things.

 

[b1shmu63]

Personally I prefer the feel of a standard transmission, but for those who want or need an automatic, The options already on the market are reliable and efficient. Toyota's synergy drive has to be rather efficient to be used on the Prius and one can hardly argue with its simplicity.

I admire this fellows inventiveness. It takes balls and a whole lot of work to see something like this through to a patent. However chain drives on motorcycles, snow blowers, etc. have largely been replaced by direct drive gear boxes, as chains break, stretch, and are messy to deal with.

Could this be the same fellow who was posting here a couple of weeks ago?

 

[Yves M.]

Hello Mr. UncleHan,

1) English is not my first language (not sure of the translation) but among other things, you had written in your first message "I’ve recently devised a type of transmission and I wonder if it can benefit any applications" so unless you are "Lawrence Anderson" then you have an truth/lie problem here. I will not persue this.

2) The tranny would not need to have a clutch. It is similar to the bicycle gear change, you simply release the gas pedal (remove the torque applied) and the tranny could change gear.
I do not see it's uses without having a way to keep the torque applied while changing gears.

 

[unclehan]

You guys are mistaking.

Yes, I did post here couple of weeks ago regarding something I've came up with. But it's NOT this thing I'm showing you guys. This is another person's invention. So basically it's my competition. And I wonder if any engineering heads can contribute any thoughts.

Sure, the Prius electric drive is direct, but it's about 88% efficient at best due to energy conversion. Not to mention the weight. I heard those motors/generators can weigh several hundreds of pounds. Several hundred pounds is about 10% for a several thousands pound car.

A light gear/chain drive is still desirable.

 

[Armin]

How does this differ from the traditional CVT already used by Honda and others? At least in principle, it looks very much the same!

 

[unclehan]

How does this differ from the traditional CVT already used by Honda and others? At least in principle, it looks very much the same!

You guys are completely missing this. Back to square one.

Traditional CVTs are belt with no teeth. It depends on frictional force to transmit power, which limits the load capacity and efficiency. Isn't it obvious that this guy used a "floating sprocket bars" to simulated semiflexible teeth that can use normal force to transmit power, just like gear teeth. Obvious you can't have a real geared CVT since all the teeth are in a one and one relationship with another.

That's something the auto industry have been trying to improve for decades. And thousands of engineering firms are still working on it.

The thing about this guy's design is the shape of the teeth and the floating mechanism which might kill the durability and the efficiency. I was looking for some professional engineers to give me some insight on the practicality, weakness/strength of the design in different operating conditions.

 

[Tim Maddux]

The thing about this guy's design is the shape of the teeth and the floating mechanism which might kill the durability and the efficiency.

Yup. It looks real pretty right now but how will it look after a billion revolutions? Those little sprocket bars look like they would fatigue under the cyclical loads.

 

[b1shmu63]

OK, now that we have that cleared up. As an inventor technologist I can tell you that what we see in that other inventors hands is a proof of concept prototype suitable for patent application.......period. There could easily be several million dollars between that and a useful transmission. That is why most inventors die poor. Statistically only one percent profit from their inventions. It is believed that the inventor of the Diesel commited suicide (some contemporaries claimed that the diesel cycle was not actually an invention at all) and Bell claimed that he wished he had never invented the telephone, such were the intensity of the suits brought against him. An inventor of a thermal management system had spent 2 million defending his patent when last I spoke to him and and recieved death threats! If you have deep pockets and are doing this for etherial reasons, by all means persue it, but go into this with your eyes open. Been there, got the "T" shirt etc.....

The weight of the Prius electric motor doesn't count, as the Prius would not be a hybrid without it! The limitation of the IMA system is having to drag the gasoline engine allong with the motor. Your transmission would not work with Toyota hybrids and would not overcome the engine dragging of the IMA system. Although your idea may prove usefull in other areas I suspect that power transmission in cars will look radically different in the future due to a transition fron fossil fuels to electricity. A one or two speed trasmission may prove ideal.

 

[unclehan]

OK, now that we have that cleared up. As an inventor technologist I can tell you that what we see in that other inventors hands is a proof of concept prototype suitable for patent application.......period. There could easily be several million dollars between that and a useful transmission. That is why most inventors die poor. Statistically only one percent profit from their inventions. It is believed that the inventor of the Diesel commited suicide (some contemporaries claimed that the diesel cycle was not actually an invention at all) and Bell claimed that he wished he had never invented the telephone, such were the intensity of the suits brought against him. An inventor of a thermal management system had spent 2 million defending his patent when last I spoke to him and and recieved death threats! If you have deep pockets and are doing this for etherial reasons, by all means persue it, but go into this with your eyes open. Been there, got the "T" shirt etc..... .

I'm actually targetting more of a inventors competition that'll give me $100000 if I do good. That's all I want. And that should easily cover the expense for a patent. And if things start to get out of hand later on, the worst that can happen is for me to give up the right to my patent.

The weight of the Prius electric motor doesn't count, as the Prius would not be a hybrid without it! The limitation of the IMA system is having to drag the gasoline engine allong with the motor. .

Of course it counts. Face it, the only real advantage of the electric motor is that is can recover the energy from braking. And that's what Honda is doing. In addition, it can help the car in acceleration because the engine is the least efficient at that. And that's exactly what Honda did, and they did it with a small, light motor.

Toyota used a much bigger motor and an extra generator, so it's an CVT by itself. How can you ignore the couple of hundreds pound of difference? You are telling me the Honda Insight is not a hybrid...

The most ideal transmission for hybrid would be Honda's approach, use a small light motor to do what hybrids do best. And for the rest of time, an efficient, light, geared mechanical CVT that can make the engine work at its optimum.

Your transmission would not work with Toyota hybrids and would not overcome the engine dragging of the IMA system. .

We are not talking about "my" transmission here. You don't know anything about my transmission. It has changed drammatically ever since I posted last time. We are talking about someone else's right now.

Although your idea may prove usefull in other areas I suspect that power transmission in cars will look radically different in the future due to a transition fron fossil fuels to electricity. A one or two speed trasmission may prove ideal.

Not for a couple of decades.

And beside, I wasn't targetting cars in the first place. I was interested in semis. You know how much those things shift in accelerating?

 

[b1shmu63]

Trucks sound like they would be a much better application than cars.

The expressed intent of the Toyota hybrid project is to evolve it into plug in hybrids and fuel cell vehicles, so that is why the electric motor doesn't effectively add weight. In fact it is the gas engine that will eventually disappear.

Yes Honda makes hybrids and I like the straight forward approach they are taking. Their engine design team is tops IMHO.

Good luck in the competition. Hope it isn't a scam trying to rip off peoples ideas. An American patent cost us about 15 thousand. The original filing wasn't that bad, but the patent office wanted to drag things out and referred to lots of irrelevant patents that we had to respond to. Some of the claims had to be modified ( this is normal ). In the end we got more or less the patent we wanted. My associate bought me out but was unable to raise capital to take it to market. In the end the patent agent made the most from it! It was a suspension system that was adjustable for load, was self adjusting for road conditions, and had lower loss characteristics than traditional spring and shock combinations. It was cool and we figured we would be remembered like the Wright brothers and rich like Howard Hughes. You can stop laughing now and get up off the floor. Nobody with real clout out there really gives a rats arse about these sort of things. Alas inventors are born, so I'm working on another project. :roll: