MECHANICAL GRAD TURNS INVENTOR WITH "SYNCHRO-CLUTCH" DESIGN
Saratoga, NY, native John Otto has a fresh take on the manual transmission in automobiles with his patent-pending "synchro-clutch" design. His new design eliminates the need for a foot clutch, making shifting less complicated compared to traditional manual transmissions. The clutch also shifts gears without resorting to actuators and computers used in automatic gearboxes.
"I want to keep the manual transmission relevant," Otto said. "There have been a lot of changes to automatic transmissions in the last 50 years and almost no evolution with manual transmissions since the '30s or '50s."
Otto is a 2005 graduate of Saratoga Springs High School, and got his start in engineering through Project Lead the Way, an engineering program for high school students that allows them to earn college credit through the Rochester Institute of Technology. After PLTW, Otto earned a degree in mechanical engineering from Old Dominion University.
For Otto and his synchro-clutch, the seeds of the project were born when one of his high school teachers bought a BMW roadster with an automatic transmission.
"He had said that a manual transmission was too much work, something he didn't want to deal with. I just thought that was a shame in car like that," said Otto, who works on commercial and military jet engines for Pratt & Whitney in East Hartford, CT.
However, it wasn't until his sophomore year at Old Dominion that Otto put the pieces together on the synchro-clutch. While listening to a friend griping about the coordination required and hassle of shifting a manual transmission in traffic, Otto had an epiphany.
"I ran to my dorm room and read all that I could about manual transmissions and how they work until I had it all figured out. From there, I decided to make them easier to use," Otto said.
The synchro-clutch evolves the standard transmission via the integration of the clutch pedal and the shifter paddle. Instead of having to work a pedal with one foot, rev the engine with the other and then shift with one hand while keeping the other on the wheel, Otto's design rolls the shift and clutch mechanism into one by moving the clutch mechanism inside of the transmission itself.
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