[EricH]

Originally Posted by Andrew Lawrence

How a cantilevered gear right next to the plate frame any worse than the cantilever of the pinion on your CIM output shaft?

Where is the other end of that CIM output shaft? Right, securely in the motor, at the other end of the motor, where it's held securely so it just about can't move around and flex, just rotate.

If you really wanted to, you could model this as a statics problem. Draw a long beam, with a support at one end, a support near but not at the other end, and then a load at the end without the support. Now draw a short beam with one support, and the same load at the end. Apply all relevant beam equations. For bonus points, translate those loads into actual shaft loadings and see which shaft needs to be beefier to prevent bending (and uneven wear, etc.). I'd be willing to bet that the cantilever shaft supports need to be stronger, and it's likely to need a tougher shaft even though it's shorter. (general-case solution, obviously dependent on specifics of design)


Please also note carefully that this team did use cantilever last year and "saw accelerated wear and eventually failure". That statement right there indicates that for whatever reason, a cantilevered gear (presumably right next to a frame plate) is not holding up the same as a CIM pinion gear.