Transmission & Drivetrain

In mechanics, a transmission or gearbox is the gear and/or hydraulic system that transmits mechanical power from a prime mover (which can be an engine or electric motor), to some form of useful output device. more...

Explanation

Early transmissions (gearboxes) included right-angle drives and other gearing in windmills, horse-powered devices, and steam engines, mainly in support of pumping, milling, and hoisting. Most modern gearboxes will either reduce an unsuitable high speed and low torque of the prime mover output shaft to a more useable lower speed with higher torque, or do the opposite and provide a mechanical advantage (i.e increase in torque) to allow higher forces to be generated. However, some of the simplest gearboxes merely change the physical direction in which power is transmitted.

Many systems, such as typical automobile transmissions, include the ability to select one of several different gear ratios. In this case, most of the gear ratios (simply called "gears") are used to slow down the output speed of the engine and increase torque. However, the highest gear(s) may be an "overdrive" type that increases the output speed.

Uses

Gearboxes have found use in a wide variety of different—often stationary—applications. Transmissions are also used in agricultural, industrial, construction, and mining equipment. In addition to ordinary transmission equipped with gears, such equipment makes extensive use of the hydrostatic drive and electrical adjustable speed drives.

Simple transmission

The simplest transmissions, often called gearboxes to reflect their simplicity (although complex systems are also called gearboxes on occasion), provide gear reduction (or, more rarely, an increase in speed), sometimes in conjunction with a right-angle change in direction of the shaft. These are often used on PTO-powered agricultural equipment, since the axial PTO shaft is at odds with the usual need for the driven shaft, which is either vertical (as with rotary mowers), or horizontally extending from one side of the implement to another (as with manure spreaders, flail mowers, and forage wagons). More complex equipment, such as silage choppers and snowblowers, has drives with outputs in more than one direction.

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