Project For Gearbox Design
Project For Gearbox Design
FACULTY OF ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
OBJECTIVES:
The ME 376 Design Project is intended to achieve the following aims and objectives:
1. To apply the knowledge acquired and principles learned in the course to a specific, real and
practical design problem.
2. To help students gain an understanding of design approaches and to apply the principles of
strength of materials, material selection, and manufacturing processes.
3. To help students see and understand the interrelationship among individual machine elements,
which are put together to fulfill a certain specified function.
4. To complete a design task, by starting with concepts and making the necessary decision
analysis at every stage of the design, which include the detection of the critical elements and
sections of these parts and the application of the principles of functionality, cost and safety.
5. To gain an experience of working in teams.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
You are the designer and you have been asked to design a speed reducer that will take power from the
shaft of an electric motor rotating at 1200 rpm and deliver it to a machine that is to operate at
approximately at 155 rpm. Assume that you have decided to use helical gears to transmit the power
[A power equal to the last two digits of your student number in kilowatts, e.g. H = 67 kW for a
student # 092767.] and you are proposing to use a double-reduction speed reducer like the one shown
in the sample figure attached.
The input shaft (shaft-a) is coupled to the motor shaft. The first gear of the gear train is mounted on
this shaft and rotates at the same speed as the motor (n in = na = 1200 rpm.) Gear-2 drives the mating
gear (gear-3) which is larger, causing the speed of rotation of shaft-bc to be slower than shaft-a. It is
noted that the speed is not yet down to 155 rpm as desired. [That helps explain the need for a doublereduction train set. This is because a compact gearbox is needed!]
The next step is to mount a third gear (gear-4) on shaft-bc and mate it with gear-5 mounted on the
output shaft (shaft-d), which is inline with the input shaft-a. With proper sizing of all four gears, you
should be able to obtain an output speed equal or quite close to the desired speed [n out = ~155 rpm.]
Each of the shafts are supported by two ball or roller bearings that need to be specified by you [there
are six bearings to be selected by the designer!] An overall reliability of 95 %, and a design life of
20.000 h are desired.
The hand of gears #3 and #4 on shaft-bc to be adjusted such that the thrust loads on shaft-bc oppose
each other and thus the resultant axial load on the shaft is to be kept at a minimum level!
The following list gives some of the important parameters for each gear:
The number of teeth, N (such as: N2, N3, N4, and N5.)
The form of the teeth (involute tooth profile).
The size of the teeth as indicated by the module, m [mm.] (Note that the module m23 of
gear pair-23 may be different from the module m45 of gear pair-45.)
The face width of the teeth, F [mm.] (F23 is not necessarily equal to F45!)
The pitch diameter (dp)for each of the gears, [mm.]
The means of attaching the gear to its shaft (such as: keys and keyways)
The means of locating the gear axially on the shaft (collars, retaining rings etc.)
The degree of precision of the gear teeth (You will need to decide on Q V based on the
pitch line velocity V of the pair (Noting that V23 V45)).
Other geometry related to helical gears (e.g. normal and transverse pressure angles ( n,
t) and the helix angle .)
11. A good presentation will earn extra bonus points! Note that stepwise solutions and
explanatory remarks will help improve your style.
Sample Drawing: