by Brianna Crandall — March 28, 2014—Facilities managers who oversee lawn care, landscaping or snow-blowing duties and the upkeep of related equipment may benefit from a new white paper issued by General Transmissions, Inc., that explains continuously variable transmissions (CVTs) and their emerging role in the U.S. outdoor power equipment (OPE) market, including efficiency and maintenance benefits.
Written in plain language, the white paper—titled “Continuously Variable Transmissions Are Ready to Roll into the Outdoor Power Equipment Market”—will be of interest to anyone with a desire to learn more about CVT technology as applied to products such as lawn tractors, snow throwers and self-propelled walk-behind lawn mowers.
Anticipating further demand by outdoor power equipment (OPE) manufacturers for continuously variable transmissions (CVTs), General Transmissions produced the white paper to help inform American readers about the technology and its application in the OPE industry. CVTs are already widely used in outdoor power sports equipment such as snowmobiles and ATVs, but they are not nearly as popular—yet—in OPE products, explains the company.
Using the example of a real-world installation of a CVT in a commercially available lawn tractor in the United States, the white paper goes to great lengths to explain how a belt-driven CVT functions. It also details how the functional aspects of CVTs translate into operational benefits not only for manufacturers of OPE equipment but also the end users—consumers and lawn care professionals alike.
Benefits to using CVTs over more traditional OPE drive systems include greater operating efficiency and maintenance-free operation, as noted in the white paper.
CVTs are just beginning to take hold as a mainstream drive system for the OPE market in the United States, reportedly due in no small measure to the dedicated work of companies such as General Transmissions (GT), with their special focus on developing the technology for OPE use.
The basic concept of a belt-driven CVT is one of elegant simplicity, the white paper relates, involving the use of a drive belt and two pulleys to transfer engine speed to the drive components of lawn tractors, mowers and snow throwers. But the white paper goes on to explain much more about the sophisticated CVTs that companies like GT build.
General Transmissions is a family business, founded in 1991. Headquartered in Les Herbiers, France, General Transmissions also has facilities in North America, Mexico and China. General Transmissions is a global provider of lawn care transmissions, originally for walk-behind mower and, more recently, riding mowers and snow blowers.
