Hi all,
I am currently dealing with a gear train design that has a central gear and then three trains composed of three additional gears (per train) that stem from that (almost resembling a Y shape). In my assembly, when I drag the central gear, all the gears rotate. In the motion study, the last two gears furthest from the center do not rotate for two of the three trains.
Is there any simple explanation for why this might occur? I have checked my mates and don't know what the problem could be.
Additionally, my gear teeth all intersect in the animation. Is there any way I can keep my gear mates but prevent this from happening?
There are a number of componenets in the assembly, so I don't know if it would be approrpiate to upload the assembly + all the part files here, though I will gladly do so if someone is willing to take a look.
Thanks in advance!
First issue, final gears not rotating. The first thing to check is the stroboscopic speed of the gears that you think are not rotating. In most problems like this the gears are in fact turning, but as they are turning such that the teath are in the same position at each frame, it looks like they are not rotating. Change your framerate slightly and see if they rotate or change the rotational speed of the driving gear slightly and see if the gears are in fact turning.
See: Creating Animations using SolidWorks, starting page 473
Second issue, teeth interference. You have to manually move all the gears at time zero to the correct relative positions and update the keys. Move the time bar to zero. In the Motion study, start with the central gear and work outward toward the end of the trains. Suppress the first mate and drag the follow gear so that the teeth do not intersect and then unspress the mate. Select the position key for the follow gear and click Update Key. Repeat through all the gear mates.
Reference: Creating Animations using SolidWorks, starting page 497
If those do not solve your problem, then you should upload your assembly and parts.