In the mainstream of power transmission throughout the contemporary industrial era, gear and belt systems have been the standard. Traction drives, a different technology, have been in use for a long time and offer notable gains in simplicity, efficiency, and noise/vibration. Traction drives were created in the 1800s, but it wasn’t until recently that their advantages could be fully reaped, thanks to manufacturing, materials, and fluids developments.
The first traction drives patent material dated back to C.W. Hunt CVT in 1887, and NASA has been interested in traction drive technology since the 1970s. General Motors worked with traction drives from the 1920s through the 1940s. There has always been an interest since traction drive technology provides advantages. However, the benefits of traction drives could not be appreciated until businesses like Santolubes began to create new fluid technology. As an illustration, modern fluids have coefficients of friction in the.1–.12 range as opposed to the.05–.06 content of previous fluids allows for more torque transmission with lower regular forces. More innovative designs may now be produced thanks to the era of CNC machines, which allows for more precise manufacturing. Traction drives are becoming more popular for various reasons, including fluid new technology, simpler designs, improved production techniques, and cleaner steel. To name a few applications, traction drives are currently found in superchargers, turbochargers, electric vehicles, pumps, HVAC, and medical. As word of the technology grows, a lot more will emerge.
The Function of Traction Drives is Very similar to a train wheel in size.
To produce useable rotational torque, traction drives use normal force in conjunction with multiple viscosity traction fluids. Under pressure, these fluids momentarily solidify, preventing metal-to-metal contact while dispersing pressure at the contact patch and imparting torque. Compared to the existing mainstream technology, such as gear and belt systems, traction drives’ rolling motion enables them to be very efficient and low noise producers. The sliding action and churning of the oil/grease caused by the relative movement of the gear teeth cause gear systems to lose efficiency. The bending and sliding motions of both toothed belts and regular V-belts cause belts to lose efficiency. Toothed belts are a gear set, but one of the gears is made of rubber-like material.
The normal force that must be applied to the rolling parts by many modern traction drives must be used by a separate mechanism. These methods include hydraulic clamping and spring loading. Some drives feature fixed loading, which means that the industry will slip when the torque exceeds the useable torque permitted by the limited amount of normal force. This is not the best option in either scenario since utilizing a different mechanism to provide the usual staff adds complexity and expense. Additionally, the rolling elements always experience significant Hertzian contact stresses under fixed normal force, which shortens their lifespan. Instead of requiring an additional mechanism to provide the necessary average power to transmit the requisite torque, a new, novel solution for traction drives resolves this problem. The normal force is proportional to the required torque—an ideal combination.
