Gearbox Group Assignment

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This model presents and details our eleven week project, namely titled ‘The Gearbox Project’. The purpose of this engineering project was to utilise our mechanical knowledge and skills in the goal to produce a gearbox of the highest efficiency. The gearbox was to be mated with a 6volt electric motor to act as a pulley system, in which performance (P) would be the means of assessment. This project was designed to incorporate various test stages and two opportunities to have the gearbox manufactured. Initial testing of our first design found high internal friction between the moving parts. This was evident from the excessive noise and current drawn in excess of 3.5 Amps under no load. It was from here that we took a more visual and hands on approach to eliminating this issue for our second design. A much more efficient 0.55 Amps drawn was the result, this came about from some minor modifications and an increase in tolerances. An overall performance mark of 1686 was achieved; which will later be discussed in more depth. A small portion of friction returned from wearing parts due to excessive testing, which in turn inhibited our final P value. It was concluded from our results that minimising internal friction was the most crucial factor in optimising our gearbox efficiency