New type Transmission??

[WCPoe]

Did anyone see the July issue of Diesel Power and notice the article on page 40 about the Allison Torotrak IVT transmission? Looks promising, requires no clutch or torque converter. It stated it's geared neutral and would hold the truck in place when the engines stopped?

I went to the Torotrak.com website and surfed around a bit and came away impressed. Anyone care to comment or have more insight.

 

[rbattelle]

I have mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, I hope it works. On the other hand, it looks to me from the website that all they have is a fancy 3D model - no actual hardware.

I have some question about their claim that the oil film eliminates all metal-metal contact between the rollers and the toroids. While I understand the concepts behind boundary lubrication, I'm not convinced it is as perfect as these people suggest. I suspect it would depend on the relative radii of the edge of the rollers and the toroids. What I mean is, their hypothesis would suggest that gears, for instance, should never wear out, since they have a layer of oil that squeezes between each tooth, thereby preventing any actual metal-metal contact. Yet we know gears do wear over time.

Anyway, it's a very interesting concept, but I'd like to see one built and tested.

Ryan