RADIALcvt Grabs the Spotlight at International CVT Conference
The RADIALcvt prototype on display at the VDI Conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands, October 10-11, 2017
Varibox CVT Technologies, an intellectual property company specialising in the development, patenting and licensing of alternative high efficiency CVT concepts recently attended the 2017 VDI CVT Conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands, October 10-11, where they demonstrated a prototype of the RADIALcvt, the company’s new multi parallel power path CVT innovation, attracting widespread interest from global car transmission experts present at the gathering.
The RADIALcvt which is applicable in standard, hybrid and pure electric vehicles, has a unique design featuring a single fiction drive interface in series, at least 6 traction drive parallel paths and a very large radius variation on the friction drive output. The technology can be applied in standard, hybrid and pure electric vehicles, as well as any other application such as geared motors, golf carts or industrial machinery and tractors.
The international VDI conference “CVT in automotive applications” is an exclusive global specialist conference dedicated solely to the topic of CVT in automotive vehicles.
During the conference, leading industry experts made presentations on the latest technical developments in the field of CVT and delegates got to grips with the approaches favoured in the Asian and American markets and why CVT is likely to play a significant role in the electrification of powertrains.
Although there are still only 2 CVT belt/chains in production (Bosch 80% of the market and LUK 20%), belt and chain CVT are making incremental improvements in weight and efficiency, however there are no major breakthroughs in this area.
Statistics from conference presentations indicate that the CVT market is growing at a much faster rate than the annual vehicle growth, thus CVT is gaining market share. 31% of passenger vehicles sold in the US have a CVT and in Japan the figure is higher.
Everybody is pushing for a CVT in electric vehicles with Bosch working on electric clamping to remove the hydraulic control.
Latest developments in the market include the Gear Chain Industrial’s Involute Chain, a superior CVT chain technology for vehicle applications up to 3000 N.m. This technology was developed by Gear Chain Industrial and has recently been sold to an undisclosed buyer.
Dana have also developed the Variglide a new plenary variator technology targeted at the light vehicle market. Although Dana presented their systems without any technical details, the system they presented include a variator in combination with a 4-speed automatic transmission. It can be concluded that the variator has a very small ratio range in which it is efficient, thus the need for a 4-speed gearbox, which is attached to it.
The 2017 VDI CVT conference featured approximately 21 presentations and was attended by around 150 CVT experts drawn from major global automotive industry giants, belt chain suppliers and OEMs like Toyota, Nissan, Jatco, General Motors, Bosch, LUK, Honda as well as Punch Powertrain.
Varibox’s RADIALcvt first prototype has a high mechanical efficiency, comparable with current production CVT technology and Varibox believes that subsequent low hanging fruit improvements to the prototype will already show significant improvements. This is significant as a prototype is being compared to production units.
To learn more about the RADIALcvt click here. For further information, you can download the RADIALcvt prototype test and simulation white paper. Should you have any queries concerning the RADIALcvt, please send us an email .
