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Thread: Gear material

  1. #1

    Gear material

    I am new to 3D printing and have a question about material. I want to print some bevel gears for a project where the electric motor is 1/4 hp. My question is what type of printer material would be the best to use for these gears?

  2. #2
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    take a look at ninjatek's new armadillo filament.
    It's a super tough very rigid polyurethane based material, 90% more abrasion resistant than nylon and stiffer than abs with much better impact resistance.

    I've just ordered a 10 metre sample to try out.

  3. #3
    Thanks for the reply! I will give it a look. Please post any results that you may have.

  4. #4
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    pla is also good for gears, you just need to bear in mind that most fdm plastics soften at around the 60-70c temperature zone.

    If you have an all metal hotend and a heated, enclosed print volume, and can afford peek - you can up the working temp to over 100c.

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    PLA is not good for gears. It would work if the speeds and loads are low.

    Nylon is the preferred material with gears. I did these for a vending machine project to drive 2 coils with one motor rotating apposed to one another. Everything snaps together and snaps into the machine. No tools.

    The problem with gears is printing them accurately so you achive zero lash with a solid print. These are SLS nylon for testing before tooling. So far 2000+ vends no issues dispite trying to break them. The originals i printed and they worked almost as well.

    20170109_141207.jpg
    Last edited by Todd-67; 01-09-2017 at 07:11 PM.

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    Staff Engineer Davo's Avatar
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    PEEK is good for up past 200C. We use it as a fan nozzle on our 250C heads. It prints at over 400C.

  7. #7
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    PLA is not good for gears. It would work if the speeds and loads are low.
    in other words, if it's not generating heat through friction - it's pretty good. Which is what i said.

    Just opened the packet of armadillo, with new filaments I always cut a small piece and bend it back and forth untill it breaks.
    After a couple minutes of strenuous bending. No break, the filament has developed a very slight waist. But that's it. No colour change.
    In appearance it looks and feels like pla, stiff and shiny. If it prints as well as they claim (so far in 3 years, only innofill's pro1 has ever done that) this stuff could be amazing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by curious aardvark View Post
    in other words, if it's not generating heat through friction - it's pretty good. Which is what i said.
    What part about the guys original post stating for use on a 1/4 HP motor would remotely indicate that this would be a low speed/load usage?

  9. #9
    Super Moderator curious aardvark's Avatar
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    lol fair enough :-)

    Nylon has a pretty low melting and deformation point as well.
    To be honest pretty much all the filaments that can be printed on a standard 3d printer setup (ie: max extruder temp around 250) are going to struggle under those kinds of loads.

    The armadillo is as easy to print as they claim. So would probably be the best choice for something you can print under 300c.
    It's certainly stiffer, tougher and stronger than nylon.

    There are some plas that you post process to get the glass point up past 100c. That might also be worth a try.

  10. #10
    My application is for a honey extractor basket that spins like a centrifuge so the speed is relatively slow guessing a max of 400-500 rpm. Too high of speed blows out the honeycomb so I will have to experiment. One of the reasons for the gearing is to reduce the motor shaft speed for the extractor. The other reason is to change the angle of the motor shaft to lay it on its side. The motor is rated at 1700 but I also have a speed control for it.
    This project has been on hold for something like this but I have new/different problems to figure out with the printer right now that I will post in another thread. I did order a sample of the Armadillo and I am anxious to try printing it.

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