is anyone working on this. I have seen a few differentials and what not posted. If you are unaware, there are 3 bounties open on this project, 2 of them are related to 3D printing. Check it out. I would like to see this project become something. I am not interested in the money, but i am sure someone here is.
http://wikispeed.org/challenges-3/
$1000 if I make a transmission that can be printed and used in a light car? Doesn’t seem like much of a reward.
@Mike_Miller I am not the one placing the bounty, but you would be contributing to a opensource high efficiency vehicle. The goal is to get a light weight and cheap transmission that allows the mass production of a fuel efficient vehicle. personally i don’t think a plastic transmission made out of a low temp plastic is a great idea. but i am just passing it along.
If it were possible I’m sure race teams in formula 1 would of done it.
@Nigel_Dickinson it is possible. Formula 1 is focused on high torque, high speed, high power transmissions and differentials. Completely different animal.
+Camerin hahn and plastic is less mass meaning more power. And its not high torque or high power. They would of tried it.
And a fuel efficent vehicle doesn’t need a gear box only a variable belt drive like a snow mobile. Why reinvent the wheel when the solution is there.
@Nigel_Dickinson out of curiosity, if it is easy why don’t you make one? I personally don’t think the 3d printed transmission is the right direction, but if someone is willing to give it a go, why not let them, but they have achieved a 70 MPG car that also does 0-60 in 5 seconds (proven not theoretical) in a street legal, crash rated car… i think i will bow out to their experience.
You’re missing things like material properties. PLA and ABS aren’t strong enough to support these kind of shear loads. Transmission design relies on you calculating how strong a gear needs to be, then determining the number of teeth in the gear to support that loading, then planning in a helix to that gear to quiet it down, then dealing with the packaging of all of the gears, bearings, dogs, clutches, and shafts necesary, making sure the input and output shafts are where you need them to be…then look at oiling, gear ratios (it’s all for naught if the transmission won’t keep the tires in the power band of the motor)…
It’s not just a 'hey, throw something together and we’ll give you a kilobuck!
VERY large companies, with VERY large budgets have been iterating on transmission design for the last 100 years or so. There’s very little left on the table to be improved on. 6 7 and 8 speed geartrains have been brought out to eek out the last 5% of the available gas mileage in modern non-hybrid vehicles.
@Mike_Miller I am not the one placing the bounty. i am not a mechanical engineer. i am not saying this is practical, or practical. The bounty is issued by someone else, other materials are aloud, outside of the PLA/ABS, (specifically the bounty mentioned water jet cut steel), again i am not issuing the bounty, or asking either of you to explain why it is or is not possible. i just posted the link.
In a forum…where people discuss things. You post a link to a competition, @Nigel_Dickinson and I expressed skepticism at the competition. None of that was particularly directed at you. If someone can make a 3d printed, 48 ft-lb carrying, assemblable in an hour, 5 speed + reverse transmission…more power to 'em.
@Mike_Miller I agree but gear boxes are wasteful compared to variable belt transmissions.
Seems the bounty was offered by a clutz.