TOROTRAK REVVING UP

Crystal

Patent issue has been addressed before on Ample. I’m not a subscriber so can’t search. One pointer from BillyEvo post of 18/11/01 quoting RJ:

“I could spend a lot of time explaining to you the difference between half and full toroidal and why the full toroidal variator is a better engineering answer and the relative patent positions involved (the Mazda cvt uses far more of Nissan/NSK patents than it does of ours) but it would take an awfully long time and I don’t think you should be overly concerned for the reasons I have given above.”

So Mazda needs TRK patents – no I don’t know which. At least a part-answer to your question. But all these companies cross-licence patents. No doubt they could be circumvented with enough time, money and effort, but cooperation is quicker and cheaper.

SuperN