Power transmission apparatus

Abstract

A power transmission apparatus manipulates the transmission of power of the mechanical and/or electrical form. The power transmission apparatus is constructed integrating together a power-transmitting device and a transmission interaction redistributing mechanism. The interaction redistributing mechanism redistributes, or remaps, an optimized section of the operating speed range of the power-transmitting device onto the full operating speed range, including the stall speed, of the power transmission apparatus. Full operating speed range, including low speeds, is optimized. In a mechanical implementation of the apparatus, an epicyclic gear train is utilized as the redistributing mechanism. In an electromagnetic implementation of the apparatus, a rotary commutator is utilized as the redistributing mechanism and the power-transmitting device is an electromagnetic device. The mechanical implementation is capable of handling mechanical-to-mechanical mode of power transmission. Various versions of the electromagnetic implementation are capable of handling either the mechanical-to-mechanical, electrical-to-mechanical, mechanical-to-electrical, electrical-to-electrical mode, or more than one of the four modes, of power transmission. Both the mechanical and the electromagnetic implementations are capable of power regeneration.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.