pic: Shaft Drive Bearing Blocks

[Dan Richardson]

Originally Posted by MAteo9944

I went with the solid shafts so that I could use shaft keys instead of set screws. I do like the idea of quill shafts. I will have to look into them.
Hopefully one day soon I can get hold of an ME for long enough to go over all of the calculations for the strength of the system. As of now the design is still without the support of the calculations, so the sizes and types of components are subject to change.

Yeah this is a neat design something you don't see very often, and there may be some good reasons, the efficieny is one thing, another is what you've addressed above.

It will be significantly important for you to go over the stress strain differentials with an ME. There will be many things you'll have to worry about, one is axial and torsional stresses, make sure the shaft is strong enough so that it can handled the axial stresses over the distance and that your degree of rotation is not very significant, as to where it could cause failure.

Make sure the shock, or impulse, of the robot flying full speed into a wall, or another robot is not transfered through the shaft. And if it is at all transfered make sure that the shaft is robust enough so that absorb the impact plastically without significant deflection and no deformation.

Also important, and quite possibly the easiest thing to overlook. is the frame. Frames over the course of competition have a tendancy to get all bent out of shape, it is often minute, but It does happen. In a system where allignment is paramount for optimum effciency its important that frame flexure is limited. A rigid frame will be important make sure that frame is designed in such a way that deflection is minimum and even slight deformation is avoided.

Looks good tho, I'm excited to see the newer drive style, will love to see how it works out.