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Modern vehicles are evolving at
tremendous speed...
to provide higher levels of comfort,
tranquility, performance and, most of all, environmental
sustainability. As a result,
all
automotive componentary is under scrutiny to provide solutions that
will help to achieve these goals. A major component that impacts on
almost all elements of vehicle design and performance is the
transmission. It will play an ever increasing role in the evolution
of future vehicles.
During the
past 20 years,
many
automotive research and
development companies pursuing innovation in transmissions have
focused on new technology that combines the most desirable features
of both traditional manual, and modern sophisticated automatic
gearboxes. One of these innovative technological developments was
the Automatic Manual Transmission
(AMT) which aimed to achieve fast, automated, ratio changes with
little to no power interruption, whilst maintaining the low cost,
reliability, and driveability of manual transmissions together with
low weight, minimal space requirements and low production cost.
These aims have understandably proved difficult to achieve over a
long period. The advent of dual-clutch technology has achieved
remarkable results, but further developments in AMT are still
possible. |
In New Zealand
during the late 1990’s, a young motorsport competitor dreamed of a
faster more efficient gearbox for his Rally car. Through isolation
and with minimal influence from mainstream transmission technology,
Paul Goatley made a unique AMT. His gearbox used multiple wet clutch
technology to select each ratio.
Unknown to Paul, this concept
had been tried many times by some of the worlds most well known
automotive and component companies – without success. In contrast,
Paul’s ingenuity overcame previous technical barriers and he
succeeded where others had failed.
The transmission that
still carries his name was not only innovative, but provided fast,
reliable ratio changes together with numerous other features not
previously possible with existing technology.
The discovery
that enabled the Goatley transmission to work
was subsequently
patented throughout the world. It achieves the ultimate goals sought
for AMTs and opens up new opportunities for automotive
manufacturers. Now ready for final development, it is being made
commercially available for technology users to incorporate into
their own next generation transmissions. |
