Suez Canal University

Faculty of Engineering
Mechanical Engineering Department

Machines Design

Gears project
By/ Mutaz Ahmed Mahmoud Mohamed

Supervisor/
Prof. Dr. Ramadan El-Saudi

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Project Summary:
The intent of this project was to design a gearbox containing two shafts, one
coupling, four bearings and two helical gears. The gearbox is part of an
electric cooling fan. The gearbox is being powered by a 15 kW, 60Hz AC,
electric motor with a speed of 1725 rev/min. The goal of the gearbox is to produce
a 2:1 speed reduction to 862.5 rev/min using helical gears.
There were four important machine specifications that the gearbox had to
abide by. First, the coupling combining the motor and first shaft transmits torque
but does not add to the bending or shear aspects of the system. The next
specification was that the entire system is to be bolted to a horizontal bedplate but
is only accessible from the top surface. In regards to the machine components
(apart from bolts and bearings), they must all be designed with a factor of safety
between 1.5 and 2.0 with respect to infinite life. The bearings must achieve a life
of at least 200,000,000 cycles and the factor of safety of the bolts must be greater
than 1.5.

Proposed Design

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 Bearing 4

Pin 2

Gear Key 1
Pinion Gear 1

Bearing 1

Shaft 2
Pin 1

Bearing 1 Bearing 3

Coupling
Key
Gear Key 2

Shaft 1 Gear 2

Coupling

Device operation description

This device was designed to perform in the following manner. The motor is
connected to the first shaft via a coupling with set screws and specifically designed keys.
It will turn the shaft smoothly at 1725 rpm as it is supported by two ball bearings
appropriately spaced to provide acceptable moments and deflections. On the end of the
first shaft is a pinion gear attached with a key and pin. The pinion gear, complete with 12
teeth, interferes with the second helical gear with 24 teeth, respectively. This ratio of teeth
provides the ideal speed reduction to 862.5 rpm. The new speed is then transferred to the
second shaft that is also support by two appropriately spaced ball bearings.

Analysis Summary

When analyzing this system, many assumptions were made in order to design the
components. The helical pinion and gears were designed to a pressure angle of 20˚, a
helix angle of 30˚, and a diametral pitch of 14 teeth/in. The chosen material was grade 1
steel with a hardness, Hb of 200 with a quality of 6 and a reliability of 0.9. The shafts
were designed to be made out of 1020 CD steel.

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Also, the coupling weight and gear weight were ignored when analyzing the shear and
bending of the shaft for they would be negligible. The bearings were all constructed out
of steel and the housings are cast iron. The bearings achieve infinite life because the
maximum load and maximum rpm values of the bearing were higher than what would be
experienced in this system. The keys were all constructed from an aluminum alloy with a
yield strength of 4.5 kpsi. The height and width of the key were determined base on the
diameter of the shaft. The proposed key depth was then chosen from this information.
The coupling was assumed to achieve infinite life because the key was designed properly
to support the torque provided by the motor.

Force Plane – xy Plane - xz

Reaction at Bearing 1 -66.49 lbs 182.68
Reaction at Bearing 2 199.47 lbs -548.05 lbs
Reaction at Bearing 3 -254.88 lbs 700.28 lbs
Reaction at Bearing 4 121.89 lbs -334.92 lbs
Reaction forces from the Bearings

Design Component Safety Factor Infinite Life Factor

Coupling Key 2 L = 1.1 in
Pinion Gear – Bending 1.73 σ = 18961.5 psi
Pinion Gear - Wear 2.2 σ = 48947.7 psi
Gear Key 1 2 L = 1.1 in
Gear 2 – Bending 1.85 σ = 17681.5 psi
Gear 2 - Wear 2.2 σ = 49156.9 psi
Gear Key 2 2 L = 0.82 in
Shaft 1 - Diameter nf =1.56, ny =3.26 D = 1.1875
Shaft 1 - Deflection - δ = 0.0108 in
Shaft 2 – Diameter nf =2.04, ny =4.35 D = 1.5 in
Shaft 2 - Deflection - δ = 0.008 in
Bearing 1 1.5 F = 1370.2 lbf
Bearing 2 1.5 F = 4110.7 lbf
Bearing 3 1.5 F = 5252.5 lbf
Bearing 4 1.5 F = 2512.1 lbf
Safety Factor and Infinite Life Factor Results

The above table shows the results for the safety factor and infinite life factor for each
design component in the gearbox. All machine components other than the bearings and
bolt were designed for infinite life. Each component’s factor of safety
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falls within reason of the given 1.5 to 2 range. The designed components dimensions are
realistic and could be manufactured if this system were to beconstructed.

Design Limitations
One design limitation was trying to find a coupling that could fit the 30mm
diameter of the motor shaft as well as the diameter of shaft 1. Another limitation was that
the gears had to be helical and abide the given speed reduction ratio. The motor for the
system operated as a specific speed which only provided a certain amount of power to the
system. Designing all the components to have a factor of safety within the 1.5 to 2 range
was also constraining.

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Free Body Diagrams and Detailed Calculations

FBD of Shaft 1 (xy and xz directions)

FBD of Shaft 2 (xy and xz directions)

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Shaft Analysis

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Pinion and Gear Analysis

Bearing Bolt Analysis

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Bearing and Key Analysis

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Sketch Drawings

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 Material list

Part Materials

Gear 1 Grade 1 Steel

Gear 2 Grade 1 Steel

Shaft 1 1020 Steel
Shaft 2 1020 Steel
Bearing 1 Cast Iron Base - MountedSteel Ball Bearing

Bearing 2 Cast Iron Base - MountedSteel Ball Bearing

Bearing 3 Cast Iron Base - MountedSteel Ball Bearing

Bearing 4 Cast Iron Base - MountedSteel Ball Bearing

Gear Key 1 Aluminum Alloy
Gear Key 2 Aluminum Alloy
CouplingKey Aluminum Alloy
Bolts Stainless Steel

References

1. www.sdp-si.com/estore/Direct.asp?GroupID=335
2. www.mcmaster.com
3. http://custom-manufactured-gears.amgear.com/item/all-categories/custom-helical-
gears/-nbsp?&forward=1
4. Shigley’s Mechanical Engineering Design

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