read and file the questions

Gear Efficiency Assignment

While the concepts for this assignment apply to many gear types, you may consider only spur gears here.

1. What are some of the main causes of power loss through a gear set mesh?

2. What is a typical efficiency of a single gear set mesh? ______________________

3. With perfect efficiency, hence zero losses, we have the same power out as we put in. In this case we can calculate the output velocity and the output torque. Considering that we actually do have power loss, are our velocity and torque output calculations now correct? Explain what is different and what is the same. And explain why.

4. If you have a single gear set mesh, the efficiency is XX%. If you have a gear train that has multiple meshes, each with a XX% efficiency, how do you calculate the total efficiency % for the whole system?

5. What is one approach to calculating the power losses through a gear set mesh? State the equation, the person who came up with it, and identify all of the variables involved.

6. While we typically ignore power loss through a gear set since it’s generally insignificant, explain to a novice engineer how you’d correctly handle power loss if you wanted to consider the inefficiencies. Your answer should include output power, torque, and velocity determinations.

A nice reference article