Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker that has its main headquarter in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903; the company sells automobiles and commercial vehicles under the Ford brand and most luxury cars under the Lincoln brand. Ford owns Brazilian SUV manufacturer Troller, an 8% stake in Aston Martin of the United Kingdom and a 32% stake in Jiangling Motors, it has joint-ventures in China, Thailand and Russia. The company is controlled by the Ford family. Ford introduced methods for large-scale manufacturing of cars and large-scale management of an industrial workforce using elaborately engineered manufacturing sequences typified by moving assembly lines. Ford's former UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover, acquired in 1989 and 2000 were sold to Tata Motors in March 2008. Ford owned the Swedish automaker Volvo from 1999 to 2010. In 2011, Ford discontinued the Mercury brand, under which it had marketed entry-level luxury cars in the United States, Canada and the Middle East since 1938.
Ford is the second-largest U. S.-based automaker and the fifth-largest in the world based on 2015 vehicle production. At the end of 2010, Ford was the fifth largest automaker in Europe; the company went public in 1956 but the Ford family, through special Class B shares, still retain 40 percent voting rights. During the financial crisis at the beginning of the 21st century, it was close to bankruptcy, but it has since returned to profitability. Ford was the eleventh-ranked overall American-based company in the 2018 Fortune 500 list, based on global revenues in 2017 of $156.7 billion. In 2008, Ford produced 5.532 million automobiles and employed about 213,000 employees at around 90 plants and facilities worldwide. Henry Ford's first attempt at a car company under his own name was the Henry Ford Company on November 3, 1901, which became the Cadillac Motor Company on August 22, 1902, after Ford left with the rights to his name; the Ford Motor Company was launched in a converted factory in 1903 with $28,000 in cash from twelve investors, most notably John and Horace Dodge.
The first president was not Ford, but local banker John S. Gray, chosen to assuage investors' fears that Ford would leave the new company the way he had left its predecessor. During its early years, the company produced just a few cars a day at its factory on Mack Avenue and its factory on Piquette Avenue in Detroit, Michigan. Groups of two or three men worked on each car, assembling it from parts made by supplier companies contracting for Ford. Within a decade, the company would lead the world in the expansion and refinement of the assembly line concept, Ford soon brought much of the part production in-house in a vertical integration that seemed a better path for the era. Henry Ford was 39 years old when he founded the Ford Motor Company, which would go on to become one of the world's largest and most profitable companies, it has been in continuous family control for over 100 years and is one of the largest family-controlled companies in the world. The first gasoline powered automobile had been created in 1885 by the German inventor Carl Benz.
More efficient production methods were needed to make automobiles affordable for the middle class, to which Ford contributed by, for instance, introducing the first moving assembly line in 1913 at the Ford factory in Highland Park. Between 1903 and 1908, Ford produced the Models A, B, C, F, K, N, R, S. Hundreds or a few thousand of most of these were sold per year. In 1908, Ford introduced the mass-produced Model T, which totalled millions sold over nearly 20 years. In 1927, Ford replaced the T with the first car with safety glass in the windshield. Ford launched the first low-priced car with a V8 engine in 1932. In an attempt to compete with General Motors' mid-priced Pontiac and Buick, Ford created the Mercury in 1939 as a higher-priced companion car to Ford. Henry Ford purchased the Lincoln Motor Company in 1922, in order to compete with such brands as Cadillac and Packard for the luxury segment of the automobile market. In 1929, Ford was contracted by the government of the Soviet Union to set up the Gorky Automobile Plant in Russia producing Ford Model A and AAs thereby playing an important role in the industrialisation of that country.
The creation of a scientific laboratory in Dearborn, Michigan in 1951, doing unfettered basic research, led to Ford's unlikely involvement in superconductivity research. In 1964, Ford Research Labs made a key breakthrough with the invention of a superconducting quantum interference device or SQUID. Ford offered the Lifeguard safety package from 1956, which included such innovations as a standard deep-dish steering wheel, optional front, for the first time in a car, rear seatbelts, an optional padded dash. Ford introduced child-proof door locks into its products in 1957, and, in the same year, offered the first retractable hardtop on a mass-produced six-seater car. In late 1955, Ford established the Continental division as a separate luxury car division; this division was responsible for the manufacture and sale of the famous Continental Mark II. At the same time, the Edsel division was created to design and market that car starting with the 1958 model year. Due to limited sales of the Continental and the Edsel disaster, Ford merged Lincoln and Edsel into "M
Tiller
A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is used in watercraft, where it is attached to a rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. A tiller may be used in vehicles outside of water, was seen in early automobiles. On vessels, a tiller can be used by the helmsman directly pulling or pushing it, but it may be moved remotely using tiller lines or a ship's wheel. In steering a boat, the tiller is always moved in the direction opposite of which the bow of the boat is to move. Rapid or excessive movement of the tiller results in an increase in drag and will result in braking or slowing the boat. A tiller is a lever used to steer a vehicle, it provides leverage in the form of torque to turn the device that changes the direction of the vehicle, such as a rudder on a watercraft or the surface wheels on a wheeled vehicle. A tiller can be used by directly pulling or pushing it, but it may be moved remotely using tiller lines or a ship's wheel.
Tillers on outboard motors employ an additional control mechanism where twisting of the shaft used to vary speed. In watercraft, the tiller is attached to a rudder post or rudder stock that provides leverage in the form of torque to turn the rudder. In steering a boat, the tiller is always moved in the direction opposite of which the bow of the boat is to move. If the tiller is moved to port side, the bow will turn to starboard. If the tiller is moved to starboard, the bow will turn port. Sailing students learn the alliterative phrase "Tiller Towards Trouble" to remind them of how to steer. Rapid or excessive movement of the tiller results in an increase in drag and will result in braking or slowing the boat. In the early 1500s the tiller was referred to as the steering stick; until the current international standards for giving steering orders were applied in the 1930s, it was common for steering orders on ships to be given as "Tiller Orders", which dictated to which side of the vessel the tiller was to be moved.
Since the tiller is forward of the rudder's pivot point, the rudder aft of it, the tiller's movement is reversed at the rudder, giving the impression that orders were given "the wrong way round". For example, to turn a ship to port, the helmsman would be given the order "starboard helm" or "x degrees starboard"; the ship's tiller was moved to starboard, turning the rudder to the vessel's port side, producing a turn to port. The opposite convention applied in France. There was no standardisation in vessels from Scandinavian countries, where the practice varied from ship to ship. Most French vessels with steering wheels had their steering chains reversed and when under the command of a British pilot this could result in confusion; when large steamships appeared in the late 19th century with telemotors hydraulically connecting the wheel on the bridge to the steering gear at the stern, the practice continued. However, the helmsman was now no longer directly controlling the tiller, the ship's wheel was turned in the desired direction.
Tiller Orders remained however. S. merchant marine until 1935. One of the reasons for this system continuing, apart from it being a long-established maritime tradition, was that it provided consistency—regardless of whether a vessel was steered directly by the tiller or remotely by a wheel, every vessel had a tiller of some sort and so a tiller order remained true for any vessel. During the transition period the wording of the order was changed, to specify "Wheel to starboard" or "Wheel to port". A well-known and often-depicted example occurred on the RMS Titanic in 1912 just before she collided with an iceberg; when the iceberg appeared directly in front of the ship, her officer-of-the-watch, First Officer William Murdoch, decided to attempt to clear the iceberg by swinging the ship to its port side. He ordered "Hard-a-Starboard", a Tiller Order directing the helmsman to turn the wheel to port as far as it would go; the Titanic's steering gear pushed the tiller toward the starboard side of the ship, swinging the rudder over to port and causing the vessel to turn to port.
These actions are faithfully portrayed in the 1997 film of the disaster. Although described as an error, the order was given and executed correctly— the vessel struck the iceberg anyway. However, according to the granddaughter of the highest-ranking officer to survive the sinking, Second Officer Charles Lightoller, the order was not executed. Quartermaster Hitchins, trained under Rudder Orders, mistakenly turned the wheel to starboard, it took two minutes to recognise and correct the error, by which time it was too late to avoid collision with the iceberg. Louise Patten makes the statement in an endnote to her fictional story, Good as Gold. Although this system seems confusing and contradictory today, to generations of sailors trained on sailing vessels with tiller steering it seemed logical and was understood by all seafarers. Only when new generations of sailors trained on ships with wheel-and-tiller steering came into the industry was the system replaced; the first automobiles were steered with a tiller.
A steering wheel was first used in Europe in 1894
British Leyland
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd, following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was nationalised in 1975, when the UK government created a holding company called British Leyland BL, in 1978, it incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which constituted 40 percent of the UK car market, with roots going back to 1895. Despite containing profitable marques such as Jaguar and Land Rover, as well as the best-selling Mini, British Leyland had a troubled history, leading to its eventual collapse in 1975 and subsequent nationalisation. After much restructuring and divestment of subsidiary companies, it was renamed as the Rover Group in 1986 becoming a subsidiary of British Aerospace and subsequently, BMW; the final surviving incarnation of the company as the MG Rover Group, which went into administration in 2005, bringing mass car production by British-owned manufacturers to an end.
MG and the Austin and Wolseley marques became part of China's SAIC, with whom MG Rover attempted to merge prior to administration. Today, Jaguar Land Rover and Leyland Trucks are the three most prominent former parts of British Leyland which are still active in the automotive industry, with SAIC-owned MG Motor continuing a small presence at the Longbridge site. Certain other related ex-BL businesses, such as Unipart, continue to operate independently. BLMC was created on 17 January 1968 by the merger of British Motor Holdings and Leyland Motor Corporation, encouraged by Tony Benn as chairman of the Industrial Reorganisation Committee created by the first Wilson Government. At the time, LMC was a successful manufacturer; the Government was hopeful LMC's expertise would revive the ailing BMH, create a "British General Motors". The merger combined most of the remaining independent British car manufacturing companies and included car and truck manufacturers and more diverse enterprises including construction equipment, metal casting companies, road surface manufacturers.
The new corporation was arranged into seven divisions under Sir Donald Stokes. While BMH was the UK's largest car manufacturer, it offered a range of dated vehicles, including the Morris Minor, introduced in 1948 and the Austin Cambridge and Morris Oxford, which dated back to 1959. Although BMH had enjoyed great success in the 1960s with both the Mini and the 1100/1300, both cars were infamously underpriced and despite their pioneering but unproven front wheel drive engineering, warranty costs had been crippling and had badly eroded those models' profitability. After the merger, Lord Stokes was horrified to find that BMH had no plans to replace the elderly designs in its portfolio. BMH's design efforts prior to the merger had focused on unfortunate niche market models such as the Austin Maxi and the Austin 3 litre, a car with no discernible place in the market; the lack of attention to the development of new mass-market models meant that BMH had nothing in the way of new models in the pipeline to compete with popular rivals such as Ford's Escort and Cortina.
Lord Stokes instigated plans to design and introduce new models quickly. The first result of this crash programme was the Morris Marina in early 1971, it used parts from various BL models with new bodywork to produce BL's mass-market competitor. It was one of the strongest-selling cars in Britain during the 1970s, although by the end of production in 1980 it was regarded as a dismal product that had damaged the company's reputation; the Austin Allegro, launched in 1973, earned a unwanted reputation over its 10-year production life. The company became an infamous monument to the industrial turmoil. Industrial action instigated by militant shop stewards brought BL's manufacturing capability to its knees. Despite the duplication of production facilities as a result of the merger, there were multiple single points of failure in the company's production network which meant that a strike in a single plant could stop many of the others. Both Ford and General Motors had mitigated against this years before by merging their separate British and German subsidiaries and product lines, so that production could be sourced from either British or Continental European plants in the event of industrial unrest.
The upshot was that both Ford and Vauxhall overtook BL to become Britain's two best selling marques, a title they hold to the present day. At the same time, a tide of Japanese imports, spearheaded by Nissan and Toyota exploited both BL's inability to supply its customers and its declining reputation for quality – by the end of the 1970s, the British government had introduced protectionist measures in the form of import quotas on Japanese manufacturers in order to protect the ailing domestic producers, which it was helping to sustain. At its peak, BLMC owned 40 manufacturing plants across the country. Before the merger BMH had included theoretically competing marques that were
Barker (coachbuilder)
Barker & Co. was a coachbuilder, a maker of carriages and in the 20th century bodywork for prestige cars. Founded in London in 1710 by a guards officer it more traded as Barker & Co. Limited. After the 1920s Barker & Co seemed to be unable to keep up with advances in the use of light alloys for framing. Requests for sturdier bodies were met by using heavier components which hampered the finished product's performance; the company fell into receivership in 1938 and its brand name and business were taken over by its long-term rival Hooper & Co which in its turn was taken over by Daimler in 1940 and so became part of the BSA group. Barker was the recommended bodywork supplier for early Rolls-Royce cars, although the choice was the customer's and there were several other prominent builders. One such Rolls-Royce with Barker bodywork, The Silver Ghost, is now the most valuable car in the world, valued at USD$57 million; the Silver Ghost was built for Rolls-Royce for use in their publicity activities.
Some idea of the scale of their operations may be gauged from their advertisement in The Times on the opening of the 1912 Motor Show at London's Olympia. They described themselves as Coachbuilders to H. M; the King, London Retailers and Body Specialists for Rolls-Royce Cars. They advised the reader that Barker Bodies on Rolls-Royce chassis may be viewed on their own stand 146 as well as on Rolls-Royce Stand 72; the note is added: "Nearly 100 Rolls-Royce Cars, with Barker Bodies, of various types to order, can always be seen in course of completion at our Works. Complete Rolls-Royce Cars ready for immediate delivery". 66-68, South Audley Street, London W. Telephone Mayfair 5435. Rolls-Royce did not provide their own bodywork until early 1946 when they introduced their Bentley standard steel saloon using components made by Pressed Steel Limited of Coventry in place of a coachbuilder's hand-formed shapes; these pressings were assembled and finished and the bodies fitted out at their former aero-engine factory at Crewe.
However Park Ward, another coachbuilder which had come to specialise in Rolls-Royce and Bentley bodies, had been a wholly owned subsidiary of Rolls-Royce since 1939. As well as Rolls-Royce and Bentley, Barker constructed bodywork on chassis by other manufacturers including Daimler, Packard, Cadillac and Mercedes-Benz. Rolls-RoyceDaimler'special sports' coupés One of these coupés was the personal car of HRH Princess Elizabeth. From the announcement of their opening of new factory premises in Willesden 2 January 1939. Barker & Co. LimitedShowrooms: 66, South Audley Street, London, W1 Repair Works: 77, King's Road, Chelsea, S. W.3. Factory: Elvedon Road, Willesden, N. W.10. Barker & Co at the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts Club Barker & Co at The Coachbuilders Encyclopedia — online
Epicyclic gearing
An epicyclic gear train consists of two gears mounted so that the centre of one gear revolves around the centre of the other. A carrier connects the centres of the two gears and rotates to carry one gear, called the planet gear, around the other, called the sun gear; the planet and sun gears mesh. A point on the pitch circle of the planet gear traces an epicycloid curve. In this simplified case, the sun gear is the planetary gear roll around the sun gear. An epicyclic gear train can be assembled so the planet gear rolls on the inside of the pitch circle of a fixed, outer gear ring, or ring gear, sometimes called an annular gear. In this case, the curve traced by a point on the pitch circle of the planet is a hypocycloid; the combination of epicycle gear trains with a planet engaging both a sun gear and a ring gear is called a planetary gear train. In this case, the ring gear is fixed and the sun gear is driven. Epicyclic gears get their name from their earliest application, the modelling of the movements of the planets in the heavens.
Believing the planets, as everything in the heavens, to be perfect, they could only travel in perfect circles, but their motions as viewed from Earth could not be reconciled with circular motion. At around 500 BC, the Greeks invented the idea of epicycles, of circles travelling on the circular orbits. With this theory Claudius Ptolemy in the Almagest in 148 AD was able to predict planetary orbital paths; the Antikythera Mechanism, circa 80 BC, had gearing, able to approximate the moon's elliptical path through the heavens, to correct for the nine-year precession of that path. Epicyclic gearing or planetary gearing is a gear system consisting of one or more outer gears, or planet gears, revolving about a central, or sun gear; the planet gears are mounted on a movable arm or carrier, which itself may rotate relative to the sun gear. Epicyclic gearing systems incorporate the use of an outer ring gear or annulus, which meshes with the planet gears. Planetary gears are classified as simple or compound planetary gears.
Simple planetary gears have one sun, one ring, one carrier, one planet set. Compound planetary gears involve one or more of the following three types of structures: meshed-planet, stepped-planet, multi-stage structures. Compared to simple planetary gears, compound planetary gears have the advantages of larger reduction ratio, higher torque-to-weight ratio, more flexible configurations; the axes of all gears are parallel, but for special cases like pencil sharpeners and differentials, they can be placed at an angle, introducing elements of bevel gear. Further, the sun, planet carrier and ring axes are coaxial. Epicyclic gearing is available which consists of a sun, a carrier, two planets which mesh with each other. One planet meshes with the sun gear. For this case, when the carrier is fixed, the ring gear rotates in the same direction as the sun gear, thus providing a reversal in direction compared to standard epicyclic gearing. In the 2nd-century AD treatise Almagest, Ptolemy used rotating deferent and epicycles that form epicyclic gear trains to predict the motions of the planets.
Accurate predictions of the movement of the Sun and the five planets, Venus, Mars and Saturn, across the sky assumed that each followed a trajectory traced by a point on the planet gear of an epicyclic gear train. This curve is called an epitrochoid. Epicyclic gearing was used in the Antikythera Mechanism, circa 80 BCE, to adjust the displayed position of the moon for the ellipticity of its orbit, for the apsidal precession of its orbit. Two facing gears were rotated around different centers, one drove the other not with meshed teeth but with a pin inserted into a slot on the second; as the slot drove the second gear, the radius of driving would change, thus invoking a speeding up and slowing down of the driven gear in each revolution. Richard of Wallingford, an English abbot of St Albans monastery is credited for reinventing epicyclic gearing for an astronomical clock in the 14th century. In 1588, Italian military engineer Agostino Ramelli invented the bookwheel, a vertically-revolving bookstand containing epicyclic gearing with two levels of planetary gears to maintain proper orientation of the books.
The gear ratio of an epicyclic gearing system is somewhat non-intuitive because there are several ways in which an input rotation can be converted into an output rotation. The three basic components of the epicyclic gear are: Sun: The central gear Carrier: Holds one or more peripheral Planet gears, all of the same size, meshed with the sun gear Ring or Annulus: An outer ring with inward-facing teeth that mesh with the planet gear or gearsThe overall gear ratio of a simple planetary gearset can be calculated using the following two equations, representing the sun-planet and planet-ring interactions respectively: N s ω s + N p ω p − ω c = 0
George VI
George VI was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until his death on 6 February 1952. He was the first Head of the Commonwealth. Known publicly as Albert until his accession, "Bertie" among his family and close friends, George VI was born in the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, was named after his great-grandfather Albert, Prince Consort; as the second son of King George V, he was not expected to inherit the throne and spent his early life in the shadow of his elder brother, Edward. He attended naval college as a teenager, served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force during the First World War. In 1920, he was made Duke of York, he married Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon in 1923 and they had two daughters and Margaret. In the mid-1920s, he had speech therapy for a stammer, which he never overcame. George's elder brother ascended the throne as Edward VIII upon the death of their father in 1936; however that year Edward revealed his desire to marry divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson.
British prime minister Stanley Baldwin advised Edward that for political and religious reasons he could not marry a divorced woman and remain king. Edward abdicated to marry Simpson, George ascended the throne as the third monarch of the House of Windsor. During George's reign, the break-up of the British Empire and its transition into the Commonwealth of Nations accelerated; the parliament of the Irish Free State removed direct mention of the monarch from the country's constitution on the day of his accession. The following year, a new Irish constitution changed the name of the state to Ireland and established the office of President. From 1939, the Empire and Commonwealth – except Ireland – was at war with Nazi Germany. War with Italy and Japan followed in 1941, respectively. Though Britain and its allies were victorious in 1945, the United States and the Soviet Union rose as pre-eminent world powers and the British Empire declined. After the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947, George remained king of both countries, but relinquished the title of Emperor of India in June 1948.
Ireland formally declared itself a republic and left the Commonwealth in 1949, India became a republic within the Commonwealth the following year. George adopted the new title of Head of the Commonwealth, he was beset by smoking-related health problems in the years of his reign. He was succeeded by his elder daughter, Elizabeth II. George was born at York Cottage, on the Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, during the reign of his great-grandmother Queen Victoria, his father was Prince George, Duke of York, the second and eldest-surviving son of the Prince and Princess of Wales. His mother was the Duchess of York, the eldest child and only daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Teck, his birthday, 14 December 1895, was the 34th anniversary of the death of his great-grandfather, Prince Consort. Uncertain of how the Prince Consort's widow, Queen Victoria, would take the news of the birth, the Prince of Wales wrote to the Duke of York that the Queen had been "rather distressed". Two days he wrote again: "I think it would gratify her if you yourself proposed the name Albert to her".
Queen Victoria was mollified by the proposal to name the new baby Albert, wrote to the Duchess of York: "I am all impatience to see the new one, born on such a sad day but rather more dear to me as he will be called by that dear name, a byword for all, great and good". He was baptised "Albert Frederick Arthur George" at St. Mary Magdalene's Church near Sandringham three months later. Within the family, he was known informally as "Bertie", his maternal grandmother, the Duchess of Teck, did not like the first name the baby had been given, she wrote prophetically that she hoped the last name "may supplant the less favoured one". Albert was fourth in line to the throne at birth, after his grandfather and elder brother, Edward, he suffered from ill health and was described as "easily frightened and somewhat prone to tears". His parents were removed from their children's day-to-day upbringing, as was the norm in aristocratic families of that era, he had a stammer. Although left-handed, he was forced to write with his right hand, as was common practice at the time.
He suffered from chronic stomach problems as well as knock knees, for which he was forced to wear painful corrective splints. Queen Victoria died on 22 January 1901, the Prince of Wales succeeded her as King Edward VII. Prince Albert moved up to third in line after his father and elder brother. From 1909, Albert attended Osborne, as a naval cadet. In 1911 he came bottom of the class in the final examination, but despite this he progressed to the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth; when his grandfather, Edward VII, died in 1910, Albert's father became King George V. Edward became Prince of Wales, with Albert second in line to the throne. Albert spent the first six months of 1913 on the training ship HMS Cumberland in the West Indies and on the east coast of Canada, he was rated as a midshipman aboard HMS Collingwood on 15 September 1913, spent three months in the Mediterranean. His fellow officers gave him the nickname "Mr. Johnson"; the First World War broke out a year after his commission. Three weeks after the outbreak of war he was medically evacuated from the ship to Aberdeen where his appendix was removed by Sir John Marnoch.
He was mentioned in despatches for his action as a turret officer aboard Collingwood i
Fluid coupling
This article is about hydrodynamic fluid couplings, for "hydroviscous fluid couplings" see Viscous coupling unit. A fluid coupling or hydraulic coupling is a hydrodynamic or'hydrokinetic' device used to transmit rotating mechanical power, it has been used in automobile transmissions as an alternative to a mechanical clutch. It has widespread application in marine and industrial machine drives, where variable speed operation and controlled start-up without shock loading of the power transmission system is essential. Hydrokinetic drives, such as this, should be distinguished from hydrostatic drives, such as hydraulic pump and motor combinations; the fluid coupling originates from the work of Hermann Föttinger, the chief designer at the AG Vulcan Works in Stettin. His patents from 1905 covered both fluid couplings and torque converters. A Mr Bauer of the Vulcan-Werke collaborated with English engineer Harold Sinclair of Hydraulic Coupling Patents Limited to adapt the Föttinger coupling to vehicle transmission in an attempt to mitigate the lurching Sinclair had experienced while riding on London buses during the 1920s Following Sinclair's discussions with the London General Omnibus Company begun in October 1926, trials on an Associated Daimler bus chassis, Percy Martin of Daimler decided to apply the principle to the Daimler group's private cars.
During 1930 The Daimler Company of Coventry, England began to introduce a transmission system using a fluid coupling and Wilson self-changing gearbox for buses and their flagship cars. By 1933 the system was used in all new Daimler Lanchester and BSA vehicles produced by the group from heavy commercial vehicles to small cars, it was soon extended to Daimler's military vehicles. These couplings are described as constructed under Daimler patents. In 1939 General Motors Corporation introduced Hydramatic drive, the first automatic automotive transmission system installed in a mass-produced automobile; the Hydramatic employed a fluid coupling. The first diesel locomotives using fluid couplings were produced in the 1930s A fluid coupling consists of three components, plus the hydraulic fluid: The housing known as the shell, contains the fluid and turbines. Two turbines: One connected to the input shaft; the impeller's motion imparts both outwards rotational motion to the fluid. The hydraulic fluid is directed by the'pump' whose shape forces the flow in the direction of the'output turbine'.
Here, any difference in the angular velocities of'input stage' and'output stage' result in a net force on the'output turbine' causing a torque. The motion of the fluid is toroidal - travelling in one direction on paths that can be visualised as being on the surface of a torus: If there is a difference between input and output angular velocities the motion has a component, circular If the input and output stages have identical angular velocities there is no net centripetal force - and the motion of the fluid is circular and co-axial with the axis of rotation, there is no flow of fluid from one turbine to the other. An important characteristic of a fluid coupling is its stall speed; the stall speed is defined as the highest speed at which the pump can turn when the output turbine is locked and full input torque is applied. Under stall conditions all of the engine's power at that speed would be dissipated in the fluid coupling as heat leading to damage. A modification to the simple fluid coupling is the step-circuit coupling, manufactured as the "STC coupling" by the Fluidrive Engineering Company.
The STC coupling contains a reservoir to which some, but not all, of the oil gravitates when the output shaft is stalled. This reduces the "drag" on the input shaft, resulting in reduced fuel consumption when idling and a reduction in the vehicle's tendency to "creep"; when the output shaft begins to rotate, the oil is thrown out of the reservoir by centrifugal force, returns to the main body of the coupling, so that normal power transmission is restored. A fluid coupling cannot develop output torque when the input and output angular velocities are identical. Hence a fluid coupling cannot achieve 100 percent power transmission efficiency. Due to slippage that will occur in any fluid coupling under load, some power will always be lost in fluid friction and turbulence, dissipated as heat. Like other fluid dynamical devices, its efficiency tends to increase with increasing scale, as measured by the Reynolds number; as a fluid coupling operates kinetically, low-viscosity fluids are preferred. Speaking, multi-grade motor oils or automatic transmission fluids are used.
Increasing density of the fluid increases the amount of torque that can be transmitted at a given input speed. However, hydraulic fluids, much like other fluids, are subject to changes in viscosity with temperature change; this leads to a change in transmission performance and so where unwanted performance/efficiency change has to be kept to a minimum, a motor oil or automatic transmission fluid, with a high viscosity index should be used. Fluid couplings can act as hydrodynamic brakes, dissipating rotational energy as heat through frictional forces. Wh
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