When the disks are intermeshed, they thus only contact at the rim of the central pack, no matter what the spacing of the shafts.

As the swing arms are moved inwards, the tapered disks are forced between the central rims against their spring-loading.

Unlike most other variators, but in common with the Hele-Shaw clutch, the Beier gear does not rely on friction between the disks, but rather on viscous drag through a thin oil film between them.

This has little slip, less than 1%,[1] and the lack of friction reduces the losses through heat and thus permits a small compact mechanism to still handle a high power.

In contemporary use, the Beier variator is most widely used as part of an industrial motor drive.