In our robot drivetrain we have a set of 20 DP (3/8" face width) gears
with a 2-speed shifting mechanism. The gears (high grade steel, not
hardened) are bored and reamed to .750" and have 4 semicircle cutouts
90 degrees apart. Each semicircle is approximately .125" deep. The
gears ride on a stainless steel shaft with 2 sets of holes 90 degrees
apart around the shaft and the center of the shaft bored out
approximately 1/2". Ball bearings ride in each hole on the shaft and a
plunger is pulled back and forth inside the shaft. To engage a
particular speed, the plunger is pulled into alignment with one set of
holes and ball bearings (1/4" dia stainless steel, precision ground)
are pushed out to mesh with the semicircles cut into the bore of the
gear. The other gear that is not engaged free rotates on the shaft.

The problem we have been having is that on one of the gearboxes
something has caused wear on the shaft which leads to the non-engaged
gear unable to freely rotate. This leads to the equivalent of both
speeds being engaged at the same time (not good) and effectively stalls
the motor. We have taken apart the gearbox and replaced the shaft,
gears, and bearings with spares, and made sure that both the gears and
the shaft are clean and lightly lubricated. The gearbox is enclosed so
there is no foreign material that could be getting into the gearboxes.
The wear seems to be build up of metal from the gears onto the shaft.
This is not a flaw in gearbox design, as the system worked for many
hours of competition and testing earlier in the season. In addition,
one gearbox has never had this problem, and the other gearbox has done
this twice in two days.

I'd appreciate help from anyone who might have an idea as to why this
wear is ocurring and what I might be able to do to prevent this from
happening. We have a limited number of shafts and they are rather
difficult to machine and so we don't want this happening if we can
avoid it.

You can see the shaft, ball bearings, and gears in
http://engineer.la.mvla.net/robotics...x/DSC00139.JPG

I will try to post a link to a magnified picture of the wear on the
shaft itself in a few days.

Thanks in advance,
Michael
Los Altos High School Robotics Team "Eagle Strike"
Los Altos, CA
www.lahsrobotics.org

Stainless galls and is as you say rather difficult to machine. Try
some non stainless steel shafting. If you are going to use the shafts
you have already made, use some 600 grit or finer sandpaper around a
dowel and get the hole in the gears as smooth as possible. Use
synthetic oil ( mobile one ) or krytox grease and I think you will be
fine.

Dan


woodworker88 wrote:
a stainless steel shaft


The wear seems to be build up of metal from the gears onto the shaft.
This is not a flaw in gearbox design,

I'd appreciate help from anyone who might have an idea as to why this
wear is ocurring and what I might be able to do to prevent this from
happening. We have a limited number of shafts and they are rather
difficult to machine and so we don't want this happening if we can
avoid it.

Thanks in advance,
Michael
Los Altos High School Robotics Team "Eagle Strike"
Los Altos, CA
www.lahsrobotics.org

In article .com,
says...
In our robot drivetrain we have a set of 20 DP (3/8" face width) gears
with a 2-speed shifting mechanism. The gears (high grade steel, not
hardened) are bored and reamed to .750" and have 4 semicircle cutouts
90 degrees apart. Each semicircle is approximately .125" deep. The
gears ride on a stainless steel shaft with 2 sets of holes 90 degrees
apart around the shaft and the center of the shaft bored out
approximately 1/2". Ball bearings ride in each hole on the shaft and a
plunger is pulled back and forth inside the shaft. To engage a
particular speed, the plunger is pulled into alignment with one set of
holes and ball bearings (1/4" dia stainless steel, precision ground)
are pushed out to mesh with the semicircles cut into the bore of the
gear. The other gear that is not engaged free rotates on the shaft.

The problem we have been having is that on one of the gearboxes
something has caused wear on the shaft which leads to the non-engaged
gear unable to freely rotate. This leads to the equivalent of both
speeds being engaged at the same time (not good) and effectively stalls
the motor. We have taken apart the gearbox and replaced the shaft,
gears, and bearings with spares, and made sure that both the gears and
the shaft are clean and lightly lubricated. The gearbox is enclosed so
there is no foreign material that could be getting into the gearboxes.
The wear seems to be build up of metal from the gears onto the shaft.
This is not a flaw in gearbox design, as the system worked for many
hours of competition and testing earlier in the season. In addition,
one gearbox has never had this problem, and the other gearbox has done
this twice in two days.

What you're seeing is galling, not wear, and is a materials rather than
a design problem. The best solution would be to replace one of the
sliding components with a better bearing material. If the shaft is a
diificult part to make, I'd consider a bronze insert in the bore of the
gear. Regular SAE 660 bearing bronze is easy to get hold of and easy to
machine if the loads are low. One step up would be a phosphor bronze.
The proper aluminum or manganese bronze would be at least as strong as
the gear.

Enter "bronze" in the search window at http://www.mcmaster.com/ and
you'll get an overview of the common bronzes. More detailed info is
available at Matweb.

http://www.matweb.com

Ned Simmons

Some never sieze lube might get you through the day until you can
replace the shafting with something that doesn't cough up galls.
Work the smooth parts with 600grit autobody sandpaper or even finer.
A wood dowell with a slot makes a halfway decent flexhone.

woodworker88 wrote:
In our robot drivetrain we have a set of 20 DP (3/8" face width) gears
with a 2-speed shifting mechanism. The gears (high grade steel, not
hardened) are bored and reamed to .750" and have 4 semicircle cutouts
90 degrees apart. Each semicircle is approximately .125" deep. The
gears ride on a stainless steel shaft with 2 sets of holes 90 degrees
apart around the shaft and the center of the shaft bored out
approximately 1/2". Ball bearings ride in each hole on the shaft and a
plunger is pulled back and forth inside the shaft. To engage a
particular speed, the plunger is pulled into alignment with one set of
holes and ball bearings (1/4" dia stainless steel, precision ground)
are pushed out to mesh with the semicircles cut into the bore of the
gear. The other gear that is not engaged free rotates on the shaft.

The problem we have been having is that on one of the gearboxes
something has caused wear on the shaft which leads to the non-engaged
gear unable to freely rotate. This leads to the equivalent of both
speeds being engaged at the same time (not good) and effectively stalls
the motor. We have taken apart the gearbox and replaced the shaft,
gears, and bearings with spares, and made sure that both the gears and
the shaft are clean and lightly lubricated. The gearbox is enclosed so
there is no foreign material that could be getting into the gearboxes.
The wear seems to be build up of metal from the gears onto the shaft.
This is not a flaw in gearbox design, as the system worked for many
hours of competition and testing earlier in the season. In addition,
one gearbox has never had this problem, and the other gearbox has done
this twice in two days.

I'd appreciate help from anyone who might have an idea as to why this
wear is ocurring and what I might be able to do to prevent this from
happening. We have a limited number of shafts and they are rather
difficult to machine and so we don't want this happening if we can
avoid it.

You can see the shaft, ball bearings, and gears in
http://engineer.la.mvla.net/robotics...x/DSC00139.JPG

I will try to post a link to a magnified picture of the wear on the
shaft itself in a few days.

Thanks in advance,
Michael
Los Altos High School Robotics Team "Eagle Strike"
Los Altos, CA
www.lahsrobotics.org


Why use stainless steel at all in such an application? You're not
running in salt water, right? If it's a properly designed unit, it's
going to have gear oil in there, so it's not going to rust. Stainless
steel has an annoying tendancy to gall and it's hard to machine. Get
some decent carbon steel shafting in there, either carburized or
case-hardened if you're going to have bits rotating on it, and use some
decent gear oil with high-pressure additives. Bush your gears and
bearings with bronze or cast iron and you'll not have the same
problems. Cast iron and steel will work for bearing and shaft, steel
and steel, no. Check the coefficient of friction tables.

Stan

As Ned said, gauling is a common problem in sliding applications and
is usually corrected by a change in material. If you need to remake
the shaft strongly consider one of the graphitic tool steels, such as
O-6 or A-10. These steels contain free graphite which acts as a
lubricant is sliding applications. I have used these steels in the
past and have had good success. YMMV.

John Normile


On Wed, 10 May 2006 08:42:09 -0400, Ned Simmons
wrote:
What you're seeing is galling, not wear, and is a materials rather than
a design problem. The best solution would be to replace one of the
sliding components with a better bearing material. If the shaft is a
diificult part to make, I'd consider a bronze insert in the bore of the
gear. Regular SAE 660 bearing bronze is easy to get hold of and easy to
machine if the loads are low. One step up would be a phosphor bronze.
The proper aluminum or manganese bronze would be at least as strong as
the gear.

Enter "bronze" in the search window at http://www.mcmaster.com/ and
you'll get an overview of the common bronzes. More detailed info is
available at Matweb.

http://www.matweb.com

Ned Simmons

Thanks to all who responded. The gearbox isn't totally enclosed, so I
can't use an oil bath, but I am definitely going to try and see what I
can do to add lubrication. Clearly a change in future materials is in
order. I have had problems with surface rust on regular steel shafts
that interferes with movement, but I will see what I can find in terms
of bushings, etc and other possible shafting materials.
Thanks again for the advice,
Michael

woodworker88 wrote:

Thanks to all who responded. The gearbox isn't totally enclosed, so I
can't use an oil bath, but I am definitely going to try and see what I
can do to add lubrication. Clearly a change in future materials is in
order. I have had problems with surface rust on regular steel shafts
that interferes with movement, but I will see what I can find in terms
of bushings, etc and other possible shafting materials.
Thanks again for the advice,
Michael



Other than proper lubrication, you can try Nitronic 60 material for some
of the mating parts. Virtually all stainless steel material galls at
2000 PSI..Nitronic 60 parts mating with either other nitronic 60 or 300
series galls at about 50,000 PSI. Nitronic 60 is a stainless material
that has about the same corrosion resistance and properties as T304
stainless.

Even if you get past the galling, you may have wear problems over time.
Stainless is a very bad wear material and acts pretty soft when used as
wear parts. Precipitation hardened grades of stainless (17-4 ph for
instance) will improve wearability but will NOT improve the threshold
galling stress: It'll gall at 2000 PSI just like the unhardened 300
series stainless.

Lubrication is the real answer though...cheap and effective.

Koz