Differential Gearbox with Worm Gear Reduction

myminifactory

For the Sinterit Lisa competition, I wanted to show a design I created specifically for the Lisa. This design cannot be printed on my FDM printers and SLA printers would also struggle due to the need of complicated support structures to hold the underside of gear teeth in place and the narrow gaps between them when they mesh.  This is a differential gearbox with a worm gear reduction. This is to showcase several moving parts printed as one piece needing a lot of complicated support structures (or in the case of SLS printers, just powder). It has a moving handle crank that will turn the worm and corresponding throated worm wheel. This is mated to bevel gears and pinions. This setup allows each of the shafts to spin at different rates and slip relative to each other if needed. A gearbox like this is needed in cars to allow for wheels to slip when they turn around corners. Adding the worm gear allows for a gear reduction increasing torque but also allows mounting the engine in a different orientation. Future versions (not yet created) could have the worm gear flipped 90deg.   I hope not being able to print this with my current printers does not count against me in this competition. I will replace the rendered image with a 3D printed one as soon as someone (hopefully me) prints it on the Sinterit Lisa