摘要 |
A transmission system for transmitting essential torque between two locations whose relative positions can change within certain limits, such as between the gearbox and rear axle of an automobile. The system includes a flexible shaft of fibre-reinforced plastics material which connects said locations. The two ends of the shaft are rigidly attached at said locations and the shaft has a sufficiently low Young's modulus in the longitudinal direction and low flexural stiffness to enable positional changes between said locations to be taken up by bending of the shaft. To this end the shaft has the form of a coreless tubular shaft in which the tubular wall comprises a substantially homogenous material with the fibres distributed substantially uniformly over the whole cross-section. The fibres are suitably carbon fibres, forming an angle to the longitudinal direction of the shaft of between +/-40 DEG and +/-50 DEG , preferably between +/-43 DEG and +/-47 DEG . |