All of the transmissions available in the market today is continuing to grow exponentially within the last 15 years, all while increasing in complexity. The result is certainly that we are now coping with a varied quantity of tranny types including manual, regular automatic, automated manual, dual clutch, constantly variable, split power and pure EV.
Until very recently, automotive vehicle manufacturers largely had two types of tranny to select from: planetary automated with torque converter or conventional manual. Today, nevertheless, the volume of choices available demonstrates the changes seen across the industry.

That is also illustrated by the many various kinds of vehicles now being manufactured for the market. And not just conventional automobiles, but also all electric and hybrid vehicles, with each type needing different driveline architectures.

The traditional development process involved designing a transmission in isolation from the engine and the rest of the powertrain and vehicle. However, this is changing, with the limitations and complications of this method becoming more more popular, and the constant drive among manufacturers and designers to deliver optimal efficiency at decreased weight and cost.

New powertrains feature close integration of components like the prime mover, recovery systems and the gearbox, and also rely on highly advanced control systems. This is to guarantee that the best degree of efficiency and functionality is delivered all the time. Manufacturers are under improved pressure to create powertrains that are brand new, different from and much better than the last version-a proposition that’s made more technical by the need to integrate brand components, differentiate within the market and do it all on a shorter timescale. Engineering teams are on deadline, and the development process needs to be better and fast-paced than ever before.
Until now, the usage of computer-aided engineering (CAE) has been the most common way to build up drivelines. This process involves elements and subsystems designed in isolation by silos within the organization that lean toward verified component-level analysis tools. While these are highly advanced tools that Driveline gearboxes enable users to extract extremely dependable and accurate data, they remain presenting data that’s collected without factor of the complete system.

While this can produce components that all work very well individually, putting them with each other without prior thought of the entire program can create designs that don’t work, leading to issues in the driveline that are difficult and expensive to correct.