Patent ID: 7654926
Filing Date: 2010-02-02
Classification: F16H,Y10T

Abstract:
1. A continuously variable V-belt transmission comprising: a driving pulley including a fixed driving sheave half and a moveable driving sheave half; a driven pulley including a fixed driven sheave half and a moveable driven sheave half; a V-belt wound around the driving pulley and the driven pulley, the V-belt including a plurality of elements and an annular ring consecutively connecting the elements together; a boundary-detection arrangement configured and arranged relative to the V-belt to detect a boundary position between a first region, in which the elements are arranged without any gap therebetween, and a second region, in which the elements are arranged with a gap therebetween, along a portion of the driving pulley, when torque is transmitted from the driving pulley to the driven pulley via the V-belt; and a thrust-estimation section configured to estimate a pulley axial thrust with which the driving pulley engages the V-belt, based on the boundary position that was detected, the boundary-detection arrangement including at least two sensors that are arranged at a predetermined interval in a direction of the circumference of the driving pulley to detect presence of a gap between the elements in order to detect the boundary position between the first region and the second region.