Railway locomotive transmissions
United Kingdom Patent 884562-A
884562-A is referenced by 1 patents.
884,562. Hydro-mechanical variable-speed gear. ROLLS-ROYCE Ltd. April 25, 1960 [May 1, 1959], No. 15047/59. Class 80 (2). [Also in Group XXXI] A split-torque transmission comprises hydrodynamic torque converters 4, 5 and a fluid coupling 11a driven in parallel by a driving shaft 1, the torque converters driving the ring gear 9 of an epicyclic gear 9a the planet carrier of which is fast with an output shaft 17 and the sun gear of which is selectively stationable by a brake 18 and drivable by the coupling 11a. Under starting conditions the coupling is emptied, the brake 18 is applied, and drive is transmitted through the torque converters and the epicyclic gear. The converters are of the type having free-wheel mounted stators, and when the converters have reached the coupling stage the fluid coupling is filled and the brake 18 is released.; Instead of using converters having free-wheeling stators, converters with fixed stators may be used if the turbine drives its output shaft through a free-wheel and this output shaft can be directly driven. In a modification the epicyclic gear provides two speeds, in this case a second planet carrier is fast with the output shaft and carries planets meshing a selectively stationable ring gear and also meshing a sun gear fast with the ring gear 9. The output shaft may drive a constant-mesh reversing gear, and the transmission may be employed in a railway locomotive. The construction has the advantage that the torque converters and the coupling may be comparatively small and correspond to those available for other purposes.
