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US 2003/0199354 A1Published application
Hydrostatic transaxles
AssigneeHydro-Thoma Limited
InventorsChristian Helmut Thoma, George Duncan McRae Arnold
Life of this patent
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AssigneeHydro-Thoma Limited
InventorsChristian Helmut Thoma, George Duncan McRae Arnold
Estimating the term…
An axle assembly for use in lawn tractors, pedestrian walk-behind mowers and snow blowers in the form of a housing having an internally disposed hydrostatic transmission and speed reducing gearing. An input shaft supported in the housing for driving a variable-displacement hydraulic pump of the hydrostatic transmission, the pump fluidly coupled to a fixed-displacement hydraulic motor of the hydrostatic transmission, and where the motor is drivingly connected through the speed reducing gearing to an output axle shaft or shafts. A mechanical differential disposed within said housing for applications requiring differential speeds of said axle output shafts. The housing being formed by three housing members and joined together along a substantially planar and horizontally peripheral seam formed therebetween such that two of said housing members are to one side of said seam and join with the third housing element. Two internal chambers formed by the three housing elements where one chamber contains the hydrostatic transmission and the other chamber contains the speed reducing gearing. A connecting shaft spanning between the chambers to provide the power transmission link between the hydrostatic transmission and the speed reducing gearing.
An axle assembly comprising a hydrostatic transmission and a differentialled gear reduction transmission disposed adjacent one another within at least three surrounding housing elements, said hydrostatic transmission including a hydrostatic pump and motor and said differentialled gear reduction transmission including a reduction gear train comprising a plurality of interconnecting gears, said hydrostatic transmission connected to said reduction gear train by a power transmission link having a horizontal axis of rotation disposed in a first horizontal plane and comprising a motor output shaft and a reduction gear train input shaft, wherein two of said at least three surrounding housing elements are arranged to reside side by side one another on one side of said first horizontal plane.
An axle assembly comprising a hydrostatic transmission and a differentialled gear reduction transmission disposed within at least three surrounding housing elements, said hydrostatic transmission including a hydrostatic pump and motor and said differentialled gear reduction transmission including a reduction gear train comprising a plurality of interconnecting gears, said hydrostatic transmission connected to said reduction gear train by a power transmission link having a horizontal axis of rotation disposed in a first horizontal plane and comprising a motor output shaft and a reduction gear train input shaft, a user operated mechanical disconnect mechanism disposed intermediate said motor output shaft and said reduction train input shaft;
An axle assembly comprising a hydrostatic transmission and a differentialled gear reduction transmission disposed within at least three surrounding housing elements, said hydrostatic transmission including a hydrostatic pump and motor and said differentialled gear reduction transmission including a reduction gear train comprising a plurality of interconnecting gears, said hydrostatic transmission connected to said reduction gear train by a power transmission link having a horizontal axis of rotation disposed in a first horizontal plane and comprising a motor output shaft and a reduction gear train input shaft, a user operated mechanical disconnect mechanism disposed intermediate said motor output shaft and said reduction train input shaft;
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.