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with a thickened rim. The planet disks are tapered across their radius, at an included angle of around 3°. When the disks are intermeshed, they thus only contact at the rim of the central pack, no matter what the spacing of the shafts. These planetary disk packs have a gear meshing with a gear on the swing arms' fulcrum shafts, which in turn meshes with a central gear, used for the input drive. The central shaft is the output shaft and the gear is used as a reduction gear. When the disks are moved outwards, the central rim drives on the outside radius of the similar-sized tapered disks and the overall ratio is around 1:1. As the swing arms are moved inwards, the tapered disks are forced between the central rims against their spring-loading. The effective radius of the tapered disks is thus reduced and the gear ratio increases. The gear is made in a variety of ratio ranges, typically from 3:1 to 10:1. Overall efficiency is good, greater than 90%.
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In contemporary use, the Beier variator is most widely used as part of an industrial motor drive. An electric induction motor is driven at its ideal speed, derived from the electrical line frequency, and the variator drive is used to manually adjust its output speed. These are often coupled with a
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The mechanism consists of a spring-loaded stack of thin disks on a central shaft. Around this are arranged other stacked disk packs on a number of planetary shafts, usually three. These shafts are mounted on swinging arms, so that they may be moved in and out together. The central disks are thin,
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drag through a thin oil film between them. This has little slip, less than 1%, and the lack of friction reduces the losses through heat and thus permits a small compact mechanism to still handle a high power. Oil is often pumped through the drive, also having a cooling effect.
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The gear relies on the inter-meshing of a number of thin disks. By varying their separation, the effective radius of one disk varies, thus changing the overall gear ratio. This varying-radius principle is shared by a number of other
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mechanisms. An advantage of the Beier is that a large number of disks may be stacked on a common shaft, thus increasing its
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The drive was developed by Dr Beier, an
Austrian working in Germany. Some of its first applications were as an
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that coupled a diesel piston engine together with a gas turbine and axial-compressor
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is a mechanical drive offering a continuously variable
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capacity for only a small increase in overall length.
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Unlike most other variators, but in common with the
159:"Napier Nomad: An engine of outstanding efficiency"
112:was achieved by varying the ratio of this drive.
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120:to provide an extra-low speed output.
190:"Gearboxes catalogue: Beier Variator"
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215:Mechanical devices using viscosity
96:In 1951, it was used in the E.145
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18:Beier variable-ratio gear
57:Diagrams of Beier drive
91:automatic transmission
102:turbo-compound engine
157:(30 April 1954).
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130:Hele-Shaw clutch
108:. Supercharging
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46:External image
22:Beier variator
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172:. Retrieved
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106:supercharger
98:Napier Nomad
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85:Applications
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174:18 December
204:Categories
136:References
93:in buses.
26:gear ratio
210:Variators
170:: 543–551
124:See also
74:friction
34:variator
78:viscous
167:Flight
38:torque
162:(PDF)
176:2009
16:The
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