Robert Bosch GmbH

14 Transmissions for Motor Vehicles Automatic Transmission (AT)

Automatic Transmission (AT) A planetary-gear set of this type has a kine-

Application
Automatic power-shift transmissions, or
simply automatic transmissions (AT) per-
form power take-up, select the gear ratios,
and carry out the gearshifts themselves. A
hydrodynamic converter acts as the power
take-up element.
Design and Operating Concept
Transmission with Ravigneaux Planetary-
Gear Set
The four-shaft planetary-gear set known as
the Ravigneaux set is the basis of many auto-
matic 4-speed transmissions. Figure 1 shows
the schematic, the shifting logic, and a speed-
ladder diagram for this transmission. The
transmission schematic clearly shows the lay-
out of the gear wheels and shifting elements.
Sun gears B, C and planetary-gear carrier S
can be connected via clutches CB, CC and CS
to shaft A, which is guided by the converter
turbine into the transmission. Shafts S and C
can be connected with the aid of brakes BS
and BC to the transmission housing.
matic degree of freedom of 2. This means
that, when two speeds are specified, all the
other speeds are established. The individual
gears are shifted in such a way that via two
shifting elements the speeds of two shafts
are defined either as drive speed ndr or as
housing speed nC = 0 rpm.
The speed-ladder diagram clearly shows the
speed ratios in the transmission. The speeds
are entered upwards on the speed ladders for
the individual shafts of the overlapping or
shift transmission. The gaps of the speed
ladders are derived from the gear ratios or
numbers of teeth such that the speeds be-
longing to a particular point of operation
can be connected by a straight line.
At a specific drive speed, the five reference
lines characterize the speed ratios in four
forward gears and one reverse gear.
Only the three shafts B, C and S between the
input shaft “in” (corresponding to A) and
the output shaft “out” are available for the
different gearshifts. All three shafts can be

1 4-speed automatic transmission based on Ravigneaux planetary-gear set

a c
CB CC BC BS Sun = C Bridge = S Ring gear = out Sun = B
CS
TCC 6,000
TWP rpm
L S 4
Engine speed

C B
in A out 3,000
3
2
1
0
R

–3,000
Shifting range

b Gear CC CS CB BS BC itot
1 2 3
R –2.550
1 2 3 4
N
1 2 3 4 1 2.800
Fig. 1
2 1.508
a Transmission
æ UTS0229E

2 3 4 3 1.000
schematic
b Shifting logic Gear steps with 4 0.718
c Speed-ladder simple gearshifts
diagram