| 摘要 |
This smoothly automatic changing ratios gear mechanism for use in devices as small as toys and as large as the heaviest industrial machines is an arrangement of planetary gear sets (68, 72) which provide divergent ratio gear tracks (38, 40) driven by an arrangement of components (32) for dynamically positioning virtual fulcrum points (48) along virtual balance beams (54) thus automatically realizing a multiplicity of gear ratios. The gear ratio changes result from the relationship of the amplitude of force driving the system acting against the variable bias of spring and centrifugal forces that tend to keep the fulcrums (22) positioned to affect high RPM output. The gear tracks are arranged as mirror images of each other and in a manner such that the ring gear (56) of an input planetary gear set (68) is tied to the sun gear (70) of an output planetary gear set (72) and vice versa thus forming divergent ratio gear tracks (38, 40). A low RPM output results from driving the input ring gear (56) and a high RPM output results from driving the input sun gear (58) with virtual fulcrum points (48) impinging upon virtual balance beams (54) so that gear ratios from the highest to the lowest and all the continuum between are possible. Using a sun gear to ring gear size ratio of 1/5 provides an output gear ratio ranging from 1/1 to 36/1.
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