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A Gear Ratio change is one of the easiest ways to change Mechanical Advantage in a mechanism or system to achieve desired speed and/or torque. Using different sized gears meshed together in a gear train can change the speed or torque provided by the motor.
The speed/torque relationship are inverse to one another, meaning they are opposite. When you increase speed, you decrease torque. When you increase torque, you decrease speed. Torque can be thought of as the amount of power provided as a twisting force on the drive shaft.
Gear ratios can be mathematically calculated by counting the number of teeth on the gear. Here is a WikiHow website to help you do this.
The speed/torque relationship are inverse to one another, meaning they are opposite. When you increase speed, you decrease torque. When you increase torque, you decrease speed. Torque can be thought of as the amount of power provided as a twisting force on the drive shaft.
Gear ratios can be mathematically calculated by counting the number of teeth on the gear. Here is a WikiHow website to help you do this.
When a larger gear is connected to a motor and the smaller gear is driven, the speed increases. This works because the smaller gear rotates faster than the larger gear since it has less teeth. When you increase the speed using this type of gear ratio, you sacrifice torque. When two gears are meshed together, they rotate in opposite directions. |
When a smaller gear is connected to a motor and the larger gear is driven, the speed decreases. This works because the larger gear rotates slower than the smaller gear since it has more teeth. Many times you will want to slow down the mechanisms so that you can increase the torque in the gear system. When two gear are meshed together, they rotate in opposite directions. |
Sometimes a gear is used between two gears. This gear is called an idler gear. The reason you would want to add an idler gear is to change the direction of the driven gear. When one idler gear is used between two gears, the driving and driven gears rotate in the same direction. It does not matter the size of the idler gear, just the sizes of the driving and driven gear when looking at gear ratios for speed and torque. |