Posted: February 7th, 2015

Gear Ratios

Paper, Order, or Assignment Requirements

 
This report is intended to help practice laboratory style reporting, to a standard expected by a UK University. You will be expected to describe an experiment and discuss results. You conclusion should be a summary of your results and the key ideas you learned from the experiment.
Target length 1,000 words excluding references and the title. You are allowed +/- 10%.

Required report structure
• Title, Author, Date
• Introduction
• Equipment and Materials
• Method & Results
• Discussion of Results
• Conclusion
• References

Introduction
Provide some background information on gears in general and also summarise what the rest of the report will discuss. Mention which properties of the motor the experiment focusses on.
Equipment and Materials
A lifting device was created from various pieces of the Motor and Gear kit. Discuss the components – what they are – what they do and explain how the lifting device was constructed.
Method & Results
Explain how the measurements were made and provide a table of results. Summarise the results and discuss the main findings.
Discussion of Results
Define gear ratio and torque and explain how the experiment should behave in theory, taking into account how the motor performs when loaded.
The following questions should be answered:
What effect did gear ratio have on the ability of the device to lift weights?
How did the size of the sprocket affect this? Why?
The experiment used all possible gear ratios of 4:1 to 4096:1 – was the effect consistent? Explain any differences. What range of gear ratios gave reliable results?
Connect this to the speed & torque at the motor using the DC motor characteristic in the reference below and the datasheet information on the motor used in the kit.
Discuss any problems with the equipment that may have produced inconsistent results.
Conclusion
Summarise your work in the conclusion- theory, measurements and observations for gear ratios; Repeat some of the important theoretical points and how strongly these were supported in your experiments.
References
List any web sites you used to provide information for your report. Quote any text you referenced in the body of your text, and create a proper Harvard style reference.
Resources
The Motor & Gear kit is from MFA Como. It is the 917D KIT WITH RE 140 MOTOR.
http://www.mfacomodrills.com/gearboxes/multiratio.html
http://www.mfacomodrills.com/pdfs/multiratio%20gearbox.pdf
Some information on electric motors can be found here:
http://lancet.mit.edu/motors/motors3.html
It you need to read more on gear ratios then further information can be found here
http://science.howstuffworks.com/transport/engines-equipment/gear-ratio.htm
http://maelabs.ucsd.edu/mae_guides/machine_design/machine_design_basics/Mech_Ad/mech_ad.htm