Overheat
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Transmission technology specialist Antonov announced its new production-ready transmission systems at the Frankfurt Motor Show, including a six-speed automatic gearbox which "addresses the issue of poor efficiency of conventional automatic transmissions and the dependence of CVTs on specialist belt suppliers." This gearbox comprises two sets of Antonov's planetary gears arranged on parallel countershafts; this is lightweight, compact and would be cheaper to produce than six-speed gearboxes currently in production, as well as providing scope for wider gear ratios.
Antonov has also developed a six-speed dual-clutch transmission (on a similar principle to the Volkswagen-Audi DSG) with countershafts, which uses 80percent of the components of its manual counterpart, thus also reducing development and production costs, and a compact, low-cost supercharger drive. It has patented all three of these developments, and is working with car manufacturers with a view to volume production. The two gearboxes will appear in models from Chinese manufacturers shortly, and the supercharger drive will be supplied to niche manufacturers and tuners from the end of this year.