Hydrodynamic torque converter
Convertidor de par hidrodinámico
- Date
- 1905 · confidence high
- Place
- Vulcan shipyard, Stettin (today Szczecin), Poland
- Credited to
- Hermann Föttinger
- Field
- Movement
What it is
German engineer Föttinger, at the Vulcan shipyard in Stettin, patented a mechanism combining a pump and a turbine with a fixed guide wheel between them to transmit power between shafts without a rigid mechanical connection, multiplying torque at low speeds.
Stettin then belonged to the German Empire; today it is the Polish city of Szczecin.
What it led to
- Power transmission in ships and diesel-hydraulic locomotives
- Basis for automatic automobile gearboxes
- Over a hundred later Föttinger patents in power transmission