Swiss - European Union Gear (Noncircular Gear)

thingiverse

This is a noncircular gear that consists of a toothed gear resembling the shape of Switzerland and an internal gear that represents the surrounding European Union. Due to the size of the entire system I did not print everything on my 3d printer. The EU gear and the back plate are actually laser cut from poplar plywood. The laser cutting process, with the nominal geometry, introduces a slight play that is necessary for the gear to work properly. The gear works perfectly fine but it is not very efficient since there is a lot of sliding motion between the teeth of the inner wheel and the mating surface of the outer wheel. You can find more details about the gear here: http://www.muellerr.ch/switzerland-european-union-gear/