Cvt

[Raeanne Dimick]

In essence, a Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) is a type of automatic gearbox with an infinite number of gears situated between two values (a maximum and a minimum). One of the most common types of CVT consists of a steel or rubber belt and two conical pulleys. Unlike a normal transmission, which effectively has to choose between a given number of planetary gears, the CVT just varies the diameter of the conical inner surfaces on which the steel/rubber belt rides.
Most of them use either hydraulic pressure or spring tension to adjust the distance between the two pulleys. The main advantage of CVTs over conventional transmissions resides in their smoothness, since basically there is no interruption of power during the quot;shiftingquot; maneuver. The main shortcoming is the amount of torque they can handle, which depends strictly to the material of which the belt is being made of. This can be neglected to a certain amount by designs which are using more complicated roller arrangements instead of belts and pulleys.