Gear Train Problem

An annular spur gear (1) mounted on shaft (A) has 120 teeth and drives a spur gear pinion (2) having 15
teeth mounted on shaft B. Compounded with gear (2) is a 75 tooth spur gear (3) which drives a 20 tooth
spur gear (4) mounted on shaft (C). Mounted on the same shaft as gear (4) is a 144 tooth spur gear (5)
driving a spur gear (6) which is mounted on shaft (D) which is co-linear with the axis of shaft (A). All
shafts are parallel and in the same plane.

a). Make a sketch of the gear train and identify components.

b). If all the gears have the same diametral pitch determine the number of teeth on gear (6).
c). If gear (1) is rotating at 10 rpm, determine the speed of gear (6).
d). If all gears have a diametral pitch of 4, determine the distance between shafts (A) and (C).

Solution

a). N1 = 120 Teeth, N2 = 15 Teeth, N3 = 75 Teeth, N4 = 20 Teeth, and N5 = 144 teeth

A D

B 3 6
2
1 5
C
4

b). Based on the sketch from (a) we can write

D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6
+ + = +
2 2 2 2 2 2

Since all of the gears have the same diametral pitch the above equation can be written in terms of the
number of teeth. That is,

N1 N 2 N 3 N 4 N 5 N 6
+ + = +
2 2 2 2 2 2

and
N 6 = N1 + N 3 + N 4 N 2 N 5
= 120 + 75 + 20 15 144
N 6 = 56 teeth

c). The train reduction ratio is given as

out product of number of teeth on driver gears

=
in product of number of teeth on driven gears

With 1 as the input and 6 as the output we have

 6 N1 N 3 N 5 (120 )( 75)(144 )
= =+ = +77.14
1 N 2 N 4 N 6 (15)( 20 )( 56 )
6 = 771.4 rpm

d). The distance between shafts (A) and (C) can be written as

D1 D2 D3 D4
AC = + +
2 2 2 2
N1 N 2 N 3 N 4
= + +
2P 2P 2P 2P
120 15 75 20
= + +
8 8 8 8
AC = 25 inches