TEAM MEMBERS
Cem Haybat
Mertcan Guler
How does it work?
The purpose of this mechanism is to convert circular motion to linear motion.
A crank shaft rotates with a certain angular speed, and it is connected to the pinion which is bound to move only in one direction.
As the electric motor gives the crank shaft an angular velocity the pinion gear moves back and fourth on the rack.
Real Life Usage
The rack pinion system is most commonly used in the steering system of any vehicle with wheels. The rotation given to the steering wheel by the user is converted in to linear motion.
First we decided to the lengths of the crank shaft and the connecting piece.
Then we decided on a horizontal setup rather then a vertical setup. Because the gravitational acceleration would not give us a constant angular velocity.
In the manufacturing process first we machined an aluminum plate to carry our system.
Secondly we drilled holes on the plate in order to hold the stationary pieces on the plate.
The rack part was bought as a 1 meter long part then were cut in to two pieces. The pinion was bought.
Then the crank shaft and the connecting piece were machined out of an aluminum block.
Our DC motor is a windscreen wiper motor.
The final part was the assembly of all the parts through the holes we drilled on the plate.
When we first tried the system the moving rack burst out of the system. As a result we needed to constrain the moving rack so that it would only move in a linear fashion.
