Toroidal power transmission

1. A toroidal transmission comprising four support brackets ( 16 a , 16 b , 16 c , 16 d ) supported so as to be pivotable about respective axes (X a , X b , X c , X d ),

rollers (l 5 a - 15 d ) rotatably supported one on each of said support brackets ( 16 a , 16 b , 16 c , 16 d ) so as to be in rolling contact with toroidal disks for transmitting a driving torque therebetween,

driver pulleys ( 21 a ) connected in a rotationally fixed manner to said support brackets ( 16 a , 16 b , 16 c , 16 d ) the driver pulleys ( 21 a ) being interconnected via drive means ( 24 , 25 , 26 ) wrapped around the driver pulleys ( 21 a ) for coupling the pivoting movement of the support brackets ( 16 a , 16 b , 16 c , 16 d ) about the respective axes (X a , X b , X c , X d ), two adjacent driver pulleys ( 21 a ) being connected to an adjacent one of the other driver pulleys ( 21 a ) by the drive means ( 24 , 25 , 26 ) so that all driver pulleys are interconnected for common pivoting of the support brackets ( 16 a , 16 b , 16 c , 16 d ),

the driver pulleys ( 21 a ) having driver elements ( 22 , 23 ) being arranged axially adjacent to one another and being formed by a single component

so that any bending torque applied to the support brackets ( 16 d , 16 b ) by the drive means ( 24 , 25 ) and respectively, ( 24 , 26 ) is minimized.

2. The toroidal transmission as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each driver pulley ( 21 a ) is in the form of a double driver pulley ( 21 ) having two pulley structures.

3. The toroidal transmission as claimed in claim 1 , wherein an at least partly flexible drive means ( 24 , 25 , 26 ) coupling the driver elements ( 21 a ) extends between two adjacent ones of the support brackets ( 16 a , 16 b , 16 c , 16 d ) of the toroidal transmission and crosses itself between the support brackets ( 16 a - 16 b , 16 a - 16 c , 16 b - 16 d ).

4. The toroidal transmission as claimed in claim 1 , wherein one driver element ( 23 a ) serves for coupling the pivoting movement of a first support bracket ( 16 a ) to the pivoting of an adjacent second support bracket ( 16 b ) and a further driver element ( 22 a ) serves for coupling said first support bracket ( 16 a ) to an other adjacent support bracket ( 16 c ).

5. The toroidal transmission as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the driver elements ( 22 , 23 ) are arranged in an axial end region of the support brackets ( 16 a , 16 b , 16 c , 16 d ).

6. The toroidal transmission as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each support bracket ( 16 a , 16 b , 16 c , 16 d ) is mounted pivotably about the respective axis (X a , X b , X c , X d ) and the driver pulleys ( 21 a ) are arranged axially outside the support brackets.

7. The toroidal transmission as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the support brackets ( 16 a - 16 d ) extend vertically and the driver elements ( 22 , 23 ) are arranged above the support brackets ( 16 a - 16 d ).

8. The toroidal transmission as claimed in claim 2 , wherein the pulley structures have recesses receiving form-fit elements fixed to the drive means ( 24 , 25 , 26 ) so that each drive means is firmly engaged with the respective pulley structure.

9. The toroidal transmission as claimed in claim 8 , wherein the form-fit elements of the two pulley structures of a double driver pulley are formed integrally so that all the drive means are actually operatively interconnected and all four brackets are operated in unison without any slippage.