Quote:
Originally Posted by michchinn
Will using a steel 20t gear in the 3rd stage accelerate wear on the aluminum 64t gear that it meshes with in the third stage?
Thank you all for your help and suggestions.
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The answer is probably yes depending on the hardness of the smaller steel gear and coatings on the aluminum gear.
Good news though. for the run times of a typical FRC robot, it wont matter much. The larger gear will almost always wear more slowly than the smaller gear because each tooth on the larger gear will see fewer cycles. With matches only a few minutes long and seeing a maximum of 21 at an event (except for replays) the aluminum gear should not be seeing much wear in the 40 minutes or so it is going to be running for.
However, in the future I would advise you to not use aluminum gears unless you are right up against the weight limit or are using very large gears (team 25, I am looking at you with those massive gears on your wheels...) Steel has better wear and fatigue properties in general. If you are really concerned about durability of the gears you can always have them case hardened. I did this to an old toughbox that I use for a 6000 watt motor (~15 CIM equivalent) to power a silly electric racing car and I have run under load for about 15hrs with almost no signs of wear.