Design Selection:

There are different design configurations for gear-box, which are available in the market which use
different gear-train arrangements. Some of the most popular arrangements are given below:
Simple Gear Train:
this is the most simple gear train arrangement which is used to transfer power through parallel shafts.
This design includes the benefits of least number of components, small operational parts and design
simplicity. But the weight of simple gear train is greater than other gear-train designs.
Epicyclic Gear-Train:
Epicyclic gear-train includes a planetary gear system in which different planet gears are meshed with
one sun gear. This arrangement is also used to transfer power between parallel shafts. Epicyclic geartrain is lighter and compact than simple gear-trains but involves greater number of parts.
We were to design a gear-box based on following specifications:

Fig. 1: Specified Gear-Box arrangement

Gear-Train value=18:1.
Compound Reverted Gear-Train.
Aligned Input and output shafts.

Based on above specifications, we finalized a simple but reliable design for our gear-box, which included
a 2-stage compound reverted gear-train.
According to the design we were to create each stage having gear-train value of 9:1 with a set of spur
gears. The gears were to be mounted on the shafts with rectangular parallel keys. The shafts were to be
mounted on bearings. Thus all the requirements were fulfilled by careful design of each and every
component of the project.

The main stages of our design process are:

Gear Design
Shaft Design
Bearing Design
Key Design
Retaining Ring Design

Each stage was completed with brainstorming of different layouts of components, careful consideration
of dimensions and all other design requirements.
Gear Design:
For the design of gear, different types of gears were studied to select the type that could best meet our
requirements. The different types of gears used in design process are given below:
Spur Gears:
Spur gears are used to transfer power between parallel shafts. These gears have teeth parallel to the
axis of shaft and do not produce any thrust. Spur gears have high efficiency yet with simple design.
These gears are most commonly used in mechanical systems.

Fig.2: Spur Gears.

Simple Helical Gears:
Helical gears have teeth at an angle to the axis of the shaft due to which an axial thrust is produced. The
shaft arrangement of helical gears is similar to the spur gears but helical gears run smoothly thus quietly
at higher speeds than spur gears. Also they have higher torque transmission and life. But all these
advantages become significant at high speeds so helical gears have no significant benefit on spur gears
for our design.

Fig. 4: Helical Gears.

Thus for our design we selected spur gears to keep design simple and to eliminate axial thrust that
would have been produced if we used helical gears.
Gear Stages:
We were to produce a net gear train ratio of 18:1, as it was not practical to utilize this large ratio in a
single gear stage so we divided gear train ratio into two equal parts, each of 9:1. Thus our design was to
include two gear stages each having 9:1. This means that the RPM of the pinion would increase 9 times
after meshing with the gear or pinion would be 9 times smaller than the gear.
Diameter of gears and Number of teeth:
From the specifications and the selected design layout of different components, different iterations
were done to find the correct and most practical diameter thus number of teeth for both gears of each
stage, so gears could mesh without any interference.

N=RPM
D=Pitch Diameter
T=Number of teeth
Diameter of gears was chosen as 2 and 18 while number of teeth calculated are 12 and 108
respectively for pinion and Gear.
Material Choice:
The material chosen for the design of gears is AISI 4340, which is the most economical andbest suited
material for gear manufacturing throughout the world.
Tangential Force Calculations:
The torque that was to be input to the system was already given as,

As all the torque was to be directed transferred from gear to next throughout two stages, so torque for
all the gears was considered as same.
Tangential Force=Torque/Distance between shafts

Using above tangential force and material properties , the tooth thickness was calculated to be 6.6mm.
The maximum tangential force that was calculated for our design was 3.97kN which was less than the
applied force so our design is relaiable.
Face Width Calculation:
By using the following relationship, the face width of gear was calculated,

S=Stress factor (usually one-third of yield stress) =745MPa/3=248.3MPa

F=Face Width
Y=0.226 for 20deg involute teeth.
= Diametral Pitch
Putting all the values above, the face width for our design for calculated as 0.5.
Maximum Safe tooth load:
The maximum safe tooth loads for both gears were calculated as,
Max. safe tooth load for pinion= 4019lbs
Max. Safe tooth load for gear=401lbs
These values are many times greater than the specified values so our design meets the specifications.
Pinion Gear:
The final design specifications of pinion gear are,

Pitch diameter=2
Face width=0.5
Tooth thickness=6.6mm
Number of Teeth=12
Bore=1

Fig. 5: Solidworks model of pinion.

Gear:
The final design specifications of gear are,

Pitch diameter=18
Face width=0.5
Tooth thickness=6.6mm
Number of Teeth=108
Bore=1

Fig. 6: Solidworks Model of Gear.

Shaft Design:

OUTPUT
INPUT

Fig. 7: Shafts arrangement.

Our design includes three shafts. All shafts are of 8 length and same diameter of 1.Shaft-1 is the main
input shaft, shaft-2 is the intermediate shaft and shaft-3 is the output shaft.
Material Selection and basic formulae used during shaft design:

Material= AISI 1020

Yield strength= 295Mpa
U.T.S= 395Mpa
Elastic Modulus= 200GPa
Shear Modulus= 11600Ksi

Torsional Shear Stress

T=Torque, R= Shaft Radius, J= Polar moment of inertia.

Angle of Twist
L= Length of shaft, G= Shear Modulus.

Polar moment of inertia

Maximum Power through shaft

N= RPM

Bending Moment

Resultant Stresses due to combined loading of shaft

Results of Calculations:

Deflection due to loads= 0.012in

Deflection due to weight= 1E-5in
Total deflection= 1.21E-2in.
As all the stresses are less than the U.T.S by one- half and the maximum power that could be
transmitted by the shaft is 4.443hp which is four times our requirements, so our design is
reliable.
o

F.O.S=57289/28848= 2

Fig. 8: Input and output shafts

Fig. 9: Intermediate Shaft

Design Analysis:
Input shaft:

4
3

Torque Diagram

38.6 ft-lbs

260 lbs

50 lbs

V.Load.Diagram

H.Load.Diagram

50.25 lbs

310 lbs

B.M.Diagram

1371.3 lb-in

50.25 lbs
1025.19 lb-in

Intermediate shaft:

2
2

2
1

Torque Diagram

38.6 ft-lbs

5 lbs

50 lbs

Load.Diagram

10 lbs

B.M.Diagram 455

45 lbs

345
122.5
145

Output shaft:

2
3

1
Torque Diagram

38.6 ft-lbs

Load Diagram
5 lbs

5 lbs
B.M.Diagram
20 lb-in

20 lb-in

Bearing Design:
The bearings for all the shafts were selected from already designed database of bearings for different
conditions at www.skf.com. We entered our load, speed, diameter and fatigue limit data into system
and different bearings most suitable for our design were displayed.
For Input and Output shafts:

Fig. 10: Spherical Roller Bearing

Spherical roller bearing was selected for input and output shafts because these shafts have to carry a lot
of load and at the same time operate at high speeds specially the output shaft. The basic characteristics
of bearing are as follows:

Diameter= 52mm
Width=23mm
Basic Dynamic load=49.9kN
Basic Static load=44kN
Fatigue Limit=4.8kN
Limiting speed=6100 RPM

For Intermediate Shaft:

Needle roller bearing was selected for intermediate shafts because the intermediate shaft has to work
on high rpm but does not carry any greater loads. The basic characteristics of bearings are given below:

Diameter= 37mm
Width=30mm
Basic Dynamic load=15.1kN
Fatigue Limit=2.9kN
Limiting speed=6300 RPM

The life of bearings is found to be 1000 hrs. Since all the loads are less than the specifications of
bearings, so our selected bearings can be used in the design.
Design of Key:

Fig. 11: Key

The key for our design was selected to be rectangular parallel key for design simplicity. The Material was
selected as AISI 1020. The design of key is given below:

Shearing Stress=20.68Mpa
Crushing Stress=34.47Mpa
Diameter of shaft=25.4 mm
Width=10 mm
Thickness= 8 mm

The width and thickness were selected from the already design data of keys for different shaft
diameters.
The length of key was found by using this relationship;

Since the crushing and shearing stresses of the key are very small as compared to the stresses calculated
in other components, so key will act as weak link in the design.

Design of Retaining Ring:

The retaining ring is designed for the following dimensions,

Internal Diameter=25.4 mm
Thickness= 1.5 mm

The retainer ring groove dimensions are,

Width=1.6 mm
Groove Diameter= 26.2 mm
Depth= 0.5 mm

The axial thrust for retainer ring was found to be equal to 21.7kN.