Composer 8
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Gears Group

 
 
 
Gears:
 
A Gear or Cogwheel is a rotating machine part having cut teeth, or cogs, which mesh with another toothed part to transmit torque, in most cases with teeth on the one gear being of identical shape, and often also with that shape on the other gear. To create a gear between two solids, you must choose the type of gear from the Gears group then the Gear Properties panel will appear on the left-side.
 
Gears group is located on the Links menu. You find two buttons in this groups, as shown in the following image. A brief description of  each button, supported by the SimLab Composer's simulation engine, is given as follows:
  • Gear (Gear Train or Transmission): Two or more gears working in a sequence. such gear arrangements can produce a mechanical advantage through a gear ratio and thus may be considered a simple machine. Geared devices can change the speed, torque, and direction of a power source. The most common situation is for a gear to mesh with another gear.
  • Rack and Pinion: a gear can also mesh with a non-rotating toothed part, called a rack, thereby producing translation instead of rotation. A rack is a toothed bar or rod that can be thought of as a sector gear with an infinitely large radius of curvature. Torque can be converted to linear force by meshing a rack with a pinion: the pinion turns; the rack moves in a straight line. Such a mechanism is used in automobiles to convert the rotation of the steering wheel into the left-to-right motion of the tie rod(s). Racks also feature in the theory of gear geometry, where, for instance, the tooth shape of an interchangeable set of gears may be specified for the rack (infinite radius), and the tooth shapes for gears of particular actual radii are then derived from that. The rack and pinion gear type is employed in a rack railway.