Power-branched transmission and method for the operation of such a transmission

A power-branched transmission, particularly for agricultural vehicles such as tractors or similar, includes a stepped planetary gear which is disposed between an input shaft and an output shaft and is used for dividing the power supplied at the input shaft onto a mechanical power branch and a hydraulic power branch. The hydraulic power branch is formed by two hydraulically interconnected, identical hydrostatic axial piston engines which can be selectively operated as a pump or an engine, can be swiveled within a predefined pivoting angle, and can be connected to the input shaft or the stepped planetary gear in a different manner via two respective clutches so as to cover different operating ranges or running steps. In order to obtain better efficiency in such a power-branched transmission, the two hydrostatic axial piston engines are configured as wide-angle hydrostats that are provided with a minimum pivoting angle range of 45°.