A vehicle powertrain includes the engine and transmission. In the segment of heavy-duty vehicles (>16 tonnes) automatic transmissions include a torque converter to engage/disengage the transmission and the combustion engine in gearshifts.

SAPA OPERACIONES has developed a new technology of automatic transmissions for heavy-duty vehicles called "Binary Logic" without torque converter, which bases its operation in clutches and planetary gears trains. This technology is characterized by high number of gears (24) and high efficiency (90-92%).

Although high performance is achieved due to the highnumber of gears and gearshift quality, there are two gear shiftings in which a power interruption is given (13, 21). To solve this problem and improve the performance, a hybrid module has been incorporated to the “Binary Logic” transmission. This hybrid transmission is called “SWH”. The following improvements have been obtained: Gearshift without interruption of power in all gears, performance over 96% and new operating modes (up to 7).

Hybrid transmission prototype has been successfully validated in specific test-bench (relevant environment) in which operating conditions have been simulated for a vehicle of 40 tonnes and 500 horsepower (hp).

The overall objective of this project is the demonstration of the final configuration of the hybrid transmission in a real vehicle to confirm that it meets design specifications and requirements of the application in real operating conditions. Demonstration vehicle characteristics are: 40 tonnes, 500 hp, 4 axes and 8x8 configuration.