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Mechanisms
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Mechanisms
A mechanism is the arrangement of connected parts in a machine. A bicycle,
a car, a corkscrew are all mechanisms.
Types of motion
Rotary motion is motion in a circle the starting point for many
mechanisms. It is the type of motion provided by dc motors.
Oscillation is back and forth motion about a pivot point. It is measured
in terms of both the angle of throw (amplitude) and the period of time
for one complete cycle (periodic time) or the number of cycles in a
given time (frequency).
Linear motion is the most basic of all motions. Uninterrupted objects
will continue to move in a straight line indefinitely. Under every day
circumstances gravity and friction conspire to bring objects to rest.
Reciprocating motion is back and forth motion. In the example below
the reciprocating motion of the piston is converted to the rotary
motion in the crank.
http://www.flying-pig.co.uk/mechanisms/pages/reciprocate.html
The flying-pig website is
a fantastic resource for
demonstrating the
different forms of motion.
It can provide solutions
for many different
mechanical problems
encountered when
designing systems
Levers
If you had a lever long enough and a suitable fulcrum you could move the
earth. The lever is the most basic mechanism and has been used for
thousands of years.
There are three classes of levers, and each one performs a particular job.
Class 1 Lever
Load
Effort
Fulcrum
The crowbar is a single lever but the pliers make use of two levers joined
together at the fulcrum.
Activity:
In this space can you draw another product that makes use of the class 1
lever?
Class 2 Lever
Load
Fulcrum
Effort
You will notice the arrangement has altered in this case. The fulcrum is on the
end, and load in the middle. The Effort or force is on the end.
Activity
Draw in the space below a product that makes use of a class 2 lever.
Class 3 lever
Load
Effort
Fulcrum
In the case above the load and effort change places. Can you think of a
product that makes use of a class 3 lever? Draw your thoughts below.
LOAD
EFFORT
1N
10N
10cm
100cm
MOMENTS
To design a lever to lift a particular load you will need to know about
MOMENTS. These are a way of calculating what effect a force will have when
it is applied to a lever. A MOMENT is calculated by multiplying the FORCE
with the DISTANCE the FORCE is from the fulcrum.
For a lever to be balanced, the clockwise moments and the anti-clockwise
moments must be the same. In that condition the lever is said to be in
equilibrium.
D2 _______cm
D1 _______cm
100N
Effort in N
200mm
5mm
Clock wise moments = Anticlockwise Moments
Conventions
When you draw a lever as a parallel line then you will need to follow the
correct conventions or symbols. For example a lever can be bent through 90
degrees and connected to a backboard, see below. In the diagram the type of
lever is called a bell crank lever. It is designed to move linear motion through
90 degrees.
The FREE or moving pivots can be seen as a
The FIXED pivot however is seen
non-shaded circle.
as a shaded circle.
This pivot passes through the backboard and connects the lever securely to
the backboard
Backboard
Push/ Pull
FIXED PIVOT
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CAMS
Direction of
rotation
Rise
Fall
Dwell
Cams are used to convert rotary motion into reciprocating motion. The
motion created can be simple and regular or complex and irregular.
As the cam turns, driven by the circular motion, the cam follower traces the
surface of the cam transmitting its motion to the required mechanism.
Cam follower design is important in the way the profile of the cam is followed.
A fine pointed follower will more accurately trace the outline of the cam. This
more accurate movement is at the expense of the strength of the cam
follower.
Snail CAM
The snail cam will produce a gradual rise and then a sudden fall during its
rotation. The dwell is extremely small as the CAM is lifting almost as soon as
it falls.
Follower height
Cam
Rotation
Cam Rotation
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Eccentric Cam
Pear Shaped cam will produce a regular rise and fall with a dwell for
approximately 180 degrees during rotation. The rise and fall will not be
regular, instead there will be a rapid rise and fall which relates to the shape of
the cam.
One full rotation
Fall
Rise
Dwell
Rise
Follower height
Fall
Steady fall
long dwell
steady rise
Cam Rotation
Dwell
Heart shaped cam will produce a linear rise and fall but with no dwell time
and the follower path will be a rising and falling continually.
Rise
Follower height
Fall
Linear rise
no dwell
linear rise
Cam Rotation
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The eccentric cam or circular cam produces a regular rise and fall with no
acceleration of rise or fall. There will be a uniform follower action.
Activity
Design and make a cam in 2D design and cut out on the laser cutter with the
following specifications.
A snail cam with a dwell diameter 30mm and a peak diameter of 50mm; the
first 90 degrees drops from radius of 25 to 22, to 180 degrees it drops from
radius of 22mm to 20mm, to 270 degrees the radius drops to 18 and finally to
a radius of 15mm.
360o
90o
270o
180o
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Specific Mechanisms
Crank and Slider
Connecting rod
Crank
Rotary
Reciprocating
Slider
The crank and slider mechanism can convert rotary motion into reciprocating
motion and vice versa.
Rotary to reciprocating The input turns the shaft that causes the slider to
move forwards and backwards. Examples of reciprocating motion used are
the drive systems for saws or the pumping system for hydraulic or pneumatic
systems.
Reciprocating to Rotary The input pushes the slider that causes the crank
to turn. The crank must be away from the bottom dead centre (BDC) if the
mechanism is to start. These systems make use of a flywheel. A flywheel is a
disc with a large mass so that when the slider is pushed the flywheel builds up
inertia which keeps the system running.
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Gears
The gear wheel is a toothed disc that engages or meshes with another
toothed disc. A gear wheel is a basic mechanism. Its purpose is to control
and transmit ROTARY motion. A shaft passes through the centre of a gear
wheel and the gear is connected to a shaft by using a key.
Keyed onto
shaft
Gear wheels that mesh together are known as a gear train. The gears that
are shown are called SPUR gears.
It is extremely difficult to draw two gears with teeth meshing as in the diagram
below and to the left. In order to draw gears more accurately it is necessary to
draw their symbols, the diagram to the right.
Meshing
Centre
lines
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When the DRIVER gear rotates once all of its 12 teeth mesh with all 12 of the
DRIVEN gears teeth and so the driven gear will also rotate once.
In this gear train the DRIVER transmits the effort while the DRIVEN gear is
the load.
Velocity Ratio is given as =
12
12
1:1
Note the VELOCITY RATIO of a gear train is sometimes called the GEAR
RATIO, and they are EQUAL. Sometimes you will see VR written as 1 but
it is more common to write it as 1:1
1
Now the next example shows how the speed of the transmitted motion can be
controlled.
VELOCITY RATIO = GEAR RATIO
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or
____:_____
So VR =
2
1
20 rpm
? rpm
Cross multiply
? rpm =
20 rpm x 1
2
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IDLER GEARS
What do Idler gears do?
IDLER
Driver
Driven
The idler gear will change the direction of motion of a gear box, which enables
the output DRIVEN gear to rotate in the same direction as the input DRIVER
gear.
Does it matter how many teeth there are on the IDLER gear?
1. Using the gears board shown below set up a DRIVER and DRIVEN
gear so that the gears mesh together.
2. Next move the Driven gear out and introduce the IDLER gear.
3. Try different sized gears for the idler. What are the results?
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Compound Gears
The TEP gearbox shown makes use of a
compound gear train. This consists of two
pairs of meshed gears where the gear
shafts are parallel. The gear train has a
driver gear and driven gear, but the
intermediate gears are fixed together on
one common shaft. The gears are not idle
since one becomes the driver and the other
the driven. They will affect the output
speed of the gear train.
When calculating velocity for a compound gear, calculate the gear ratios and
multiply them to give an overall gear ratio for the gearbox. Use this to
calculate the overall velocity ratio.
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Transmission of FORCE
Gears are not only used to transmit motion they also need to transmit force.
But, the force acts at a distance from the centre of rotation. Consider a
spanner used to tighten a nut below.
Force applied F
distance r
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Designing Gearboxes
Input
Process
DC Motor
No load speed
240rpm
Gearbox
Output
10 rpm
to turn an
advertising
display
The problem with this solution is that only one transmission of force is
taking place and so the TORQUE of this system will be ________(high or low)
Solution 2
By finding the PRIME factors of 24 a gearbox with more than one
transmission of force can be designed which will increase the torque of the
system.
The prime factors of 24 are 4 x 3 x 2.
A velocity reduction of 4:1, followed by 3:1 followed by 2:1 would provide an
overall reduction of 24:1 and provide 3 transmission of force which in turn
increase output torque.
3:1
2:1
4:1
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A gear that has one tooth is called a worm. The tooth is in the form of a screw
thread. A wormwheel meshes with the worm.
As the worm acts like a single toothed gear the, so the ratio of the worm and
Wormwheel =
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The rack and pinion is used to convert between rotary and linear motion. The
rack is the flat, toothed part, the pinion is the gear. Rack and pinion can
convert from rotary to linear of from linear to rotary.
The diameter of the gear determines the speed that the rack moves as the
pinion turns. Rack and pinions are commonly used in the steering system of
cars to convert the rotary motion of the steering wheel to the side to side
motion in the wheels. Rack and pinion gears give a positive motion especially
compared to the friction drive of a wheel in tarmac. In the rack and pinion
railway a central rack between the two rails engages with a pinion on the
engine allowing the train to be pulled up very steep slopes.
In the space below draw the symbol for Rack and Pinion.
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Bevel Gears
These gear wheels have teeth cut on a cone
instead of a cylinder. They are used in pairs to
transmit rotary motion and torque where bevel
gear shafts are at right angles (90 degrees) to
each other.
A hand drill makes use of a bevel gear
arrangement to transmit the turning action of
the crank to the chuck.
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SAQ
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Pulley Systems
Pulleys can be used to transmit
motion instead of gear wheels.
Pulleys offer an advantage over gear
wheels in that the pulley belt can slip
across the pulley when transmitting
motion. This can be useful if a motor
is connected to a pulley driving the
chuck of a pillar drill. If the drill bit
becomes stuck in the material being
drilled the motor can still drive and
the belt will slip. If gear wheels are
used then the motor could stall,
which might burn out the coils of the
motor, or the teeth could be stripped off of the gear wheels themselves.
DRIVER
DRIVER
Speed increase
Speed decrease
Straight connection
Same rotation
Belt drives are also used with
lawnmowers for the same reason. The
picture above illustrates the action of the
pulley and its effect on driving speed.
Pulleys are attached to the shafts
(axles) of motors in a similar way to
attaching gears, i.e. by using a KEY.
Here we can see a V pulley system where the keyway is shown cut out of the
pulley. This keyway would engage with a KEY attached (brazed or welded) to
the shaft.
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Pulley Symbols
DRIVE
10 rpm
80 mm dia
DRIVE
20 rpm
40 mm dia
When the DRIVER pulley rotates 20 times the DRIVEN pulley will only rotate
for the 20 x circumference of the Driver pulley, 10rpm.
In this pulley drive the DRIVER transmits the effort while the DRIVEN gear is
the load.
Velocity Ratio is given as =
2
1
Therefore the velocity ratio of this gear train is 2:1, velocity reduction
NOTE that for this pulley drive the velocity ratio can also be given as
Pulley Ratio
Diameter of DRIVEN
Diameter of DRIVER
80
40
2:1
2
1
Since velocity ratios are the same then this formula can be used to calculate
an unknown quantity in a pulley drive system.
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Activity
Design a pulley drive system.
Specification for your design
VR of 4:1
Driver pulley is 25mm diameter
Distance between the centres of the pulleys is 85mm
If the DRIVER pulley rotates at 240rpm calculate the speed the DRIVEN
pulley will rotate at.
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Activity
In this table list the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of
drive system.
Pulleys
Gears
Advantages
Disadvantages
Advantages
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Disadvantages
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