ME

ME2D03 Fall2021
2D03 Fall 2020 Assignment 2

ME 2D03 Fall 2021 – Assignment 2

Weeks 3 & 4 – Shafts & Gears

Due: Friday, October 8 by 7 pm

Submission: Upload a single PDF containing all answers to the assignment dropbox on Avenue

Questions

1. (8 points) A gear is to be mounted onto a shaft in a lightly loaded assembly. The gear is made of cast
iron and the shaft is mild (low carbon) steel. The assembly is to be permanent and so an interference
fit is required. The basic size of both the gear bore (hole) and shaft is 44 mm.

a) (5 points) Determine the maximum and minimum diameters of the gear bore (hole) and shaft.
b) (2 points) With the diameters determined in part a), will the gear and shaft always be able to be
assembled? Why or why not?
c) (1 point) If not, what could be done to make assembly possible while retaining the desired
interference fit?

2. (6 points) You are visiting a historic pulp mill on a field trip where a windmill is used to drive a mixer.
The windmill rotor is mounted at the top of the structure and faces west towards the prevailing wind. A
drive shaft runs down the structure and is connected to a mixing tank where the pulp is processed. A
gearbox at the top connects the output shaft of the rotor to the drive shaft powering the mixer.

a) (1 point) What type of gears do you expect to find in the gearbox?

b) (1 point) What could be proposed to increase the output speed of the mixer?
c) (4 points) If the rotor spins at an average speed of 12 RPM, what overall gear ratio is required to
produce a mixer speed of 500 RPM? Do you expect this to be achievable through a single gear
pair? Why or why not?

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ME2D03 Fall2021
2D03 Fall 2020 Assignment 2

3. (24 points) You are working as a design engineer at an amusement park. You have been tasked with
designing a compound gear train to drive a rollercoaster up a hill. A two stage compound gear train
powered by spur gears is to be used. Using your knowledge of physics, you have calculated that the
required output shaft torque is 6260 Nm to drive the rollercoaster up the hill. To meet the daily output
of the amusement park (number of riders processed per day), the output shaft must rotate at 125
RPM. Your gear train is to be powered by a 110 horsepower motor operating at 3000 RPM. The
available gears have a face width of 2 inches and the minimum number of teeth on any gear is 12.

a) (5 points) Sketch your compound gear train. Specify the number of teeth on each gear. Calculate
the overall gear ratio and verify that it will produce the required speed of the output shaft.
b) (16 points) Select a material, pressure angle and pitch for your gears. Show that the resulting
gears will be strong enough for the application (can compare torques or tooth loads).
c) (3 points) What is the safety factor on your weakest gear? Are you comfortable with this result? If
not, what would you like it to be?

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