January 23, 2025

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Building Cars, People First

Basic Continuously Variable Transmission explained with Legos

In the latest decades, the look for for superior gasoline efficiency and smoother shifting has created automatic transmissions with double-digit gears. Alternatively, the similar quest has boosted the recognition and usage of a various sort of automatic transmission without any preset gears, the consistently variable transmission, or CVT. YouTuber Sariel’s Lego Workshop just lately took the time to develop a CVT demonstration design out of Legos to aid reveal how they do the job.

Sariel begins by demonstrating the model’s enter and output shafts that are parallel to just about every other. Every single shaft has a cone attached to it, and they are inversely placed so that the significant section of a single cone is future to the compact section of the other cone. The two cones are linked utilizing a rounded rubber band. 

By shifting the rubber band up and down the cones, the machine improvements the powerful ratio concerning the cones. So, a 1:four ratio can be smoothly transitioned to four:1. No clutch is expected to function the system, and it gets rid of hitches or pauses concerning equipment improvements. CVTs are also advantageous over 9- or ten-speed automatics in that they are far fewer complicated and weigh fewer. 

To show how the CVT operates in a vehicle, Sariel applied a joke about Top rated Gear. The original Top rated Gear is represented by a a lot quicker-moving auto that has the rubber band close to the significant section of the cone on the enter shaft. Top rated Gear without previous hosts Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson, and James May possibly is represented by a slow-moving auto with the rubber band close to the significant section of the cone on the output shaft. 

For an even much more in-depth explanation of how CVTs do the job — albeit a single that doesn’t contain toys — you can click on below.