Voith Power Transmission

This richly and coloured illustrated book about Hermann Föttinger, his idea of hydrodynamic power transmission, the industrial introduction and its further developments by Voith follows the trail of the technical milestones, that mark progress of hydrodynamic power transmission. Hydrodynamic power transmission at Voith initiated a successful expansion of a business area into an independent group division.The book starts with the historical beginnings and describes the technical development of turbo transmissions for rail vehicles, which, after a few attempts, resulted in the Division "Power Transmission" at Voith. It also illustrates the vast field of industrial applications in control and start-up processes and gives an account of the development of transmissions and retarders for buses, coaches and trucks. This retrospective from early experiments to today's successes is followed by a brief overview of the prospects of hydrodynamic drive systems in the near future. The text is well edited for generally interested readers. The well-founded depiction of technical contexts is easy to understand. The book bridges an information gap regarding the early applications of hydrodynamic power transmission to modern developments, a subject of which a treatise in such a richly illustrated presentation had not previously been available. Students and young engineers find it encouraging to read about the inventor Föttinger, his brilliant idea and the enormous impact it had on the development of industry with Voith. It is a must for every collectors library.