Design and construction of gearless and geared power transmission

Abstract

Gearless power transmission system transmits power from input to output shaft by means of sliding links that from revolute pair with the hub/flange. The sliding Links stay at a 90° angle inside the hole in the input & output hub/flange. When the input shaft is connected to the output shaft through 90 degree sliding links and the input shaft is rotated, the sliding link connected to the input shaft rotates and pushes the output. so that the output shaft rotates through the output sliding link. In this way power is transferred from the input shaft to the output shaft. This mechanism can be used as a replacement for bevel gear in the low cost, low torque applications. It can transmit at any angle 0° to 180°. Most of the machines transmit power from the input to the output with the help of gears. But, the efficiency of power transmission by spur gears is less due to friction losses. From the design point of view, there is a 10% energy loss per engagement for spur gears. Also, the construction of gears is complex and, thus, costlier. The gearless elbow transmission is a very economic and efficient mechanism and has shown an efficiency of up to 92%. This paper aims at analyzing the gearless mechanism of transmitting power by Adjustable Elbow mechanism using software simulations. Most of the elbow mechanisms have a fixed position at a particular angle (60 or 90 degrees). However, we present a novel way to introduce adjustability in the system. The arrangement can work over a wide range of angles