POSITIVE DRIVE INFINITELY VARIABLE TRANSMISSION

• US 20110190093A1
• Filed: 01/29/2011
• Published: 08/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Wayne Paul Bishop
• Original Assignee: Wayne Paul Bishop
• Inventors: Bishop, Wayne Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,585,529 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 475/296
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 29/00 Gearings for conveying rotary motion with intermittently-driving members, e.g. with freewheel action gearings for converting oscillating or reciprocating movement with freewheeling members or other intermittently-driving members into a rotary movement F16H31/00
• CPC Class Codes: F16H 3/44 using gears having orbital motion the gear-ratio being changed by inversion of torque direction F16H3/005

Abstract

The “Forced Way” method is a unique method of generating variable ratio outputs from a given input of constant rotational speed by forcing one end of a drive shaft to follow a continuous path (way) around a given circle at a constant speed that can then be deformed into curves of varying radiuses that would range from the radius of the given circle to that of the various radiuses (arcs) of various ovals to a final shape of an oblong. Forcing the end of the drive shaft to follow these shapes would result in the drive shaft rotating at different rotational speeds as it transverses the shape. By sampling only the rotational output while moving over the desired portion of the shape one can control the output'"'"'s rotational speed which will be some ratio of the input. The “Forced Way” method is the only method of continuously varying an output that is robust enough to be used in any vehicle with NO possibility of slipping.

Claims

1. An apparatus for infinitely varying the output rotational speed of an output shaft as a ratio of the input rotational speed, comprising:

(a) a pair of deformable structures;

(b) a pair of overrun clutches;

(c) a pair of way follower shafts,

(d) wherein one end of each way follower shaft is attached to a deformable structure, and the other end terminates in and drives one of said pair of overrun clutches;

(e) wherein a rotational input rotates each of said deformable structures in the same direction and at the same RPM, thereby causing said way follower shafts to traverse a path that comes back on itself to form a closed loop, and wherein a complete circuit around said path comprises one rotation of said way follower shaft;

(f) means for controllably deforming a shape of said deformable structures at the same time and to the same extent, thereby changing the radius of the path at different points along the path;

(g) wherein one shaft leads the other shaft by ninety degrees; and

(h) wherein said pair of overrun clutches are arranged with respect to each other and with respect to each of said way follower shafts such that a rotational output from said pair of overrun clutches is the slower of the rotational speed of each shaft.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said deformable structures comprise a flexible cone.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of said deformable structures is driven by at least one of a gear and a pulley.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a CV joint located at some point along a length of said way follower shaft.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said way follower shaft is connected to a control shaft located within one of said overrun clutches.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising an output gear driven by an output of said overrun clutches.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein said output gear drives an output shaft through a planetary gear system.

8. A method for reducing the output rotational speed relative to the input relative speed in a transmission, comprising:

(a) providing a transmission of the type described in claim 1; and

(b) controllably deforming each of said deformable structures in such a manner as to increase a radius of the path at at least one point on said path, and as to reduce said radius at at least one other point on said path.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein said controllably deforming is performed to an extent whereby at at least one point along said path, said path has an infinitely large radius.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein said controllably deforming is performed to an extent whereby at least one point along said path has a negative radius, thereby causing a direction of said output rotation to be the negative of said input rotation direction.

11. A method for reducing the output rotational speed relative to the input relative speed in a transmission, comprising:

(a) providing a transmission comprising;

(i) a pair of structures circular in shape that can be deformed to an oblong shape or slightly beyond and still return to the original circular shape;

(ii) a pair of way follower shafts,

(iii) means for attaching one end of each way follower shaft to said deformable structure such that the attached end of said way follower shaft is able to freely move (roll, slide etc.) along said path (way) while forced to maintaining the same tangential (same orientation) position with the said path ,

(iv) means to couple the other end (the free end) of said way follower shaft with one (1) end of a secondary output shaft in such a way that rotation can be imparted one to the other when said shafts are not in alignment;

(v) means for supporting said way follower shafts, said deformable structures and said secondary output shafts;

(vi) wherein a rotational input rotates each of said structures in the same direction and at the same RPM, thereby causing each of said way follower shafts to traverse a path that comes back on itself to form a closed loop, and wherein a complete circuit around said path comprises one rotation of said way follower shaft, further wherein one shaft leads the other shaft by ninety degrees; and

(vii) means for controllably deforming said path;

(b) adding a quantity of energy to force the end of said way follower shaft that is attached to said structure, to follow said path, thereby causing said way follower shaft and coupled secondary output shaft to rotate and with a rotational speed that is a percentage of the input rotational speed as dictated by the radius of arc, i.e. curve, of said path; and

(c) controllably deforming each of said structures in such a manner as to increase a radius of the path at at least one point on said path, and as to reduce said radius at at least one other point on said path.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said force is applied to induce movement in the path end of said output shaft to follow the said path (way).

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said force is supplied by a source of energy that causes the rotation of a flexible cone that is positioned within the said path (way) and to which the path end of said output shaft is affixed.

14. The method of claim 12, wherein said force causing the rotation of said flexible cone is derived from the input source of energy (torque) and delivered to the said flexible cone via cog belt and pulleys.

15. An apparatus for infinitely varying the output rotational speed of a control shaft as a ratio of the input rotational speed, comprising:

(a) a driven system comprising a set of two(2) way follower shafts;

(b) a strong yet flexible set of two paths that can be deformed from a circular shape to an oblong shape and slightly beyond and back to the circular shape without damage or permanent deformation;

(c) a means for simultaneously and to the same extent deforming the two said flexible paths to any of the infinite number of shapes from a circular shape to an oblong shape and slightly beyond;

(d) means for attaching one end of each of said way follower shaft to each of said path (way) such that the attached end of said way follower shaft is able to freely move (roll, slide etc.) along said path while forced to maintaining the same tangential (same orientation) position with the said path, and wherein one way follower shaft leads the other way follower shaft by 90 degrees;

(e) means to couple the other ends (the free ends) of said way follower shafts with one(1) end of a control shaft in such a way that rotation can be imparted one to the other when shafts are not in co-axial alignment; and

(f) an assembly comprising a means for supporting said shafts and said paths.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said flexible paths comprise heavy metal cones conical in shape whose larger open ends are deformable from a circular shape to an oblong shape and slightly beyond and back to a circular shape but are also fixed to a base and can not move other than being deformed.

17. The apparatus of claim 15, wherein said means for coupling the other ends comprises a CV (constant velocity) joint.

18. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising very flexible, yet having strong torque rigidity, metal cones (conical shape) that when forced to rotate about a central axis will force the ends of said way follower shafts to follow said path (way)/s.

19. The apparatus of claim 15, further comprising a pair of overrun clutches each connected to one of said two control shafts, the overrun clutches co-operating with respect to each other such that their rotational output is the smaller of the rotational velocities of the two control shafts.