Hydrostatic transmission system has wide scope
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A RANGE of hydrostatic pumps and motors has been developed by the Langdale Engineering Co. Ltd., Eagle Works, Grove Road, Pontefract, Yorks, for engine outputs up to 50 bhp and has successfully been applied to lightweight dumper transmissions.
Designed to provide infinitely-variable drive, units are being developed that would be suitable for outputs up to 100 bhp and for applications to, for example, the axles of trailers or semi-trailers or the front axles of prime movers. Of the wheel-hub type, the motors can be supplied to two or more axles, the dumpers being equipped with a fourwheel-drive transmission.
The motors are of the axial-piston type while the pumps are radial-piston units, the output of which is controlled by an eccentric on the shaft. As fitted to a Muirhill 2-ton dumper, the largest motor in the automotive range produces a torque of 2,000 lb/ft at 3,000 p.s.i. Motors have been produced for industrial applications with torques up to 26,000 lb/ft.
If hub motors were applied to the axle of a trailer (or the front axle of a prime-mover) a valve could be incorporated in the system that would give automatic self-emptying of the fluid when the drive was not engaged. Drag on the wheels would, therefore, be virtually eliminated.