Pulse drive: A new power-transmission principle for a compact, high-efficiency, infinitely variable transmission

- A new principle is proposed for realizing an infinitely variable transmission.
- This principle, named “pulse drive” (PD), is highly compact and efficient.
- In PD, rotational speed and torque are converted by controlling the engagement time.
- Experimental results on a PD prototype successfully validated the PD principle.

In this paper, a new transmission principle, named “pulse drive,” is proposed for potentially realizing a highly compact, high-efficiency, infinitely variable transmission, such as that used in switching electrical power supply systems, by transmitting the driving power intermittently through periodic vibration control. In addition, the experimental results of a prototype pulse-drive transmission are discussed. Conventionally, rotational speed and torque are converted using radius ratios (e.g., gears) or slips (e.g., friction clutches). By contrast, in the proposed principle, this conversion is achieved by controlling the engagement time of compact slipless clutches (e.g., dog clutches). This principle is similar to duty control in electronic voltage converters, which utilize the ratio of engagement time rather than that of turns of coils. The experiments confirmed that the pulse drive can transmit rotational power and that torque can be converted by controlling the engagement time.