From the Rolls-Royce experimental archive: a quarter of a million communications from Rolls-Royce, 1906 to 1960's. Documents from the Sir Henry Royce Memorial Foundation (SHRMF).
Description of a controlled-differential driving and steering gear system for a tracked vehicle using epicyclic gears.
| Identifier | ExFiles\Box 147\4\ scan0194 | |
| Date | 15th May 1941 guessed | |
| Figure 2 is a horizontal section through a clutch and gear unit in the driving and steering gear, and Figure 3 is a diagram showing the modifications required to convert the arrangement shown in Figure 1 to 5 make it a gear of the controlled-differential type. Like reference characters indicate like parts in all the Figures of the drawings. As shown in Figure 1, the vehicle is driven by an engine 10 having a crankshaft 11 which drives a shaft 12 10 through a main clutch 13. The shaft 12 drives a shaft 14 through a multi-forward-speed and reverse gear-box 15. The shaft 14 drives a pair of coaxial shafts 16a and 16b through identical epicyclic gears and the shafts 16a and 16b drive, through reduction gears 18a and 18b, sprocket- 15 wheels 17a and 17b, respectively, which in turn drive the endless tracks of the vehicle. The shafts 16a and 16b carry brakes 19a and 19b for stopping the vehicle. The epicyclic gear between the shafts 14 and 16a comprises a sun-wheel 20a secured on the shaft 14 and 20 meshing with planet-wheels 21a carried by a planet- carrier 22a which is secured on the shaft 16a. The planet-wheels also mesh with an integral gear wheel 23a carried by a gear wheel 24a that is rotatable on the shaft 14. The epicyclic gear between the shafts 14 and 25 16b comprises the identical parts 20b to 24b. When the vehicle is travelling in a straight line, the gear wheels 24a and 24b are stationary and the epicyclic gears act as reduction gears. The vehicle is steered by rotating the gears 24a and 24b at equal speeds but in 30 the opposite directions, the directions of their absolute rotations being selective, so that one shaft 16a or 16b 5. | ||