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This idea has been bouncing around in my head for years but I've never put it down on paper or tried to determine if it was even possible. An expanding gear could end the need for a traditional transmission. The way in which I imagine it working is when a gear's rotational momentum increases the size and amount of teeth of the gear are increased. Here are a few of my preliminary designs:
1 comment:
Hey Donald,
nice idea (actually: nice problem ;)! I had this idea floating in my head for a long time, too, and I wondered why no company came up with a concept. My latest daydream about a possible solution involved expanding gears with inserting/retracting elements - just like letters in an old typewriter (or pieces of a pie). Imagine 2 gears with 12+4 teeth (1 inserting per quarter) whereby one gear is forced to retract the teeth (thus shrinking) and the other is simultaneously forced to insert elements (thus expanding). The insertion/retraction could be realized by levers or even automatically by centripetal forces. What do you think it about that?
Cheers,
Thomas
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