Austai Motors Designing Pty. Ltd.

Tao-Yun Lo

Su-Yang Hwa

Richard Charles Appleyard

A planetary gear apparatus that includes a pair of internal ring gears () interconnected to be driven together, a pair of planetary gear assemblies () each associated with a respective internal ring gear (), and each comprising plural pairs of planet gears (), where each pair of planet gears () has an outer planet gear () in mesh with the respective internal ring gear (or) and with its inner planet gear (); and a pair of sun gears () each associated with a respective planetary gear assembly (). The planetary gear apparatus of the invention can be incorporated into the transfer case or differential housing of a four-wheel-drive vehicle so that the dual internal ring gears () and central pinion shafts () become the main distributors of driving torque, delivering equal full-time traction and possessing the capacity of differentiating rotational speed between the front and rear driveshafts and between the opposite wheels of the vehicle in straight driving or during cornering. More importantly, even when one wheel or one axle of the driven four-wheel-drive vehicle has lost traction, or suspended above the ground, all the driving torque will the distributed to the axle(s) and related wheel(s) that are still in contact.

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Taipei, Taiwan

Tao-Yun Lo