View Single Post
  #5   Spotlight this post!  
Unread 30-12-2011, 01:15
Tristan Lall's Avatar
Tristan Lall Tristan Lall is offline
Registered User
FRC #0188 (Woburn Robotics)
 
Join Date: Aug 2001
Rookie Year: 1999
Location: Toronto, ON
Posts: 2,484
Tristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond reputeTristan Lall has a reputation beyond repute
Re: Where to find gear 3d models?

You might find it a useful exercise to grab a major gear vendor's catalogue (Boston, Martin, SDP/SI, etc.) and pick one series of gears you're likely to use during the next season—and model it for yourself. That way you have a model that you know works well with your CAD software, and which doesn't contain any potentially undesirable simplifications (as many gears available online do).

First, start with a basic design with as much detail as you need. (Years ago, it made a lot of sense to avoid modelling individual gear teeth, when the pitch circle was more or less sufficient; nowadays it isn't that much of a problem, because computers are much faster. Your choice.) This will give you a good feeling for the features of common gears, and which of those features are well-defined in catalogues (and which, like chamfers, aren't). It will also give you an opportunity to learn about CAD support for things like material properties.

Then build yourself a parametric model of that entire gear series. In Inventor, Pro/ENGINEER (Creo) or SolidWorks, you can build a family table of associated parts, each representing variations on the same basic design. When you need a part, instead of downloading a new one each time, you just pick the element directly from your table—and can switch between table members without resolving part dependencies.

For example, 32 (diametral) pitch, 20° pressure angle gears* are commonly used in the first stage of a custom gearbox using RS-550 motors. Boston's YP series and SDP/SI's S1084Z-032 series are good candidates for this sort of practice.

*0.8 module, 20° pressure angle gears are very similar to 32 pitch gears (not identical: 31.75 pitch), and in FRC applications can generally be run together with minimal ill effects. (Not ideal, but far from the worst gear mismatch that teams have gotten away with.)
Reply With Quote