Gears & Pulleys Project
The Project:
With a partner and a provided kit, a practical device was built that integrated a multitude of mechanical devices. The requirements for this project were: create a practical device that uses: two spur gears, two bevel gears, one set of pulleys, one set of worm & spur gears, and a rack and pinion.
The Design:
For this project, all of the above devices were integrated to create a simple car (made of legos, shown above). First, the motor turned a bevel gear, which turned another bevel gear of the same size. The second bevel gear turned on an axle with an eight tooth spur gear. The eight tooth gear turned a 24-tooth gear. The second spur gear was connected by an axle to a small pulley. The small pulley turned a larger pulley. The larger pulley was connected by an axle to a worm gear, the worm gear turned a spur gear. All of these mechanisms were compacted together inside of a cube, which was then placed over the rear axle, where the worm gear could spin a spur gear, making the car move. The rack and pinion were used to create a steering system for the car.
The result:
Full credit of 50 points were earned for integrating all of the mechanisms together. The gear ratio was very slow, however, and the car moved very slowly.
Experience, Lessons Learned:
The design came together pretty easily. The most difficult part was finding a way to fit all of the gears together in an organized way, so that the car would hold together. This was accomplished by making the cube that housed all of the gearing. Instead of having the gears connect with each other in a line, they were placed as close to each other as possible without touching, and moving up and down as well. Another difficult part was the steering assembly. This was a simple enough concept, but it had to be improvised to fit onto the car. The main lesson was that the ability to improvise, knowing what to do in a difficult situation is as important as planning ahead so that the situation could be avoided. Another lesson would be one about teamwork, much of the work would have taken long and have been more difficult without having a pruner to share ideas and work with. Cooperation is a valuable tool.
With a partner and a provided kit, a practical device was built that integrated a multitude of mechanical devices. The requirements for this project were: create a practical device that uses: two spur gears, two bevel gears, one set of pulleys, one set of worm & spur gears, and a rack and pinion.
The Design:
For this project, all of the above devices were integrated to create a simple car (made of legos, shown above). First, the motor turned a bevel gear, which turned another bevel gear of the same size. The second bevel gear turned on an axle with an eight tooth spur gear. The eight tooth gear turned a 24-tooth gear. The second spur gear was connected by an axle to a small pulley. The small pulley turned a larger pulley. The larger pulley was connected by an axle to a worm gear, the worm gear turned a spur gear. All of these mechanisms were compacted together inside of a cube, which was then placed over the rear axle, where the worm gear could spin a spur gear, making the car move. The rack and pinion were used to create a steering system for the car.
The result:
Full credit of 50 points were earned for integrating all of the mechanisms together. The gear ratio was very slow, however, and the car moved very slowly.
Experience, Lessons Learned:
The design came together pretty easily. The most difficult part was finding a way to fit all of the gears together in an organized way, so that the car would hold together. This was accomplished by making the cube that housed all of the gearing. Instead of having the gears connect with each other in a line, they were placed as close to each other as possible without touching, and moving up and down as well. Another difficult part was the steering assembly. This was a simple enough concept, but it had to be improvised to fit onto the car. The main lesson was that the ability to improvise, knowing what to do in a difficult situation is as important as planning ahead so that the situation could be avoided. Another lesson would be one about teamwork, much of the work would have taken long and have been more difficult without having a pruner to share ideas and work with. Cooperation is a valuable tool.