Functional Gears

Functional gears are gears that are defined by a function to exhibit a particular speed ratio as a polynomial function. By changing the pitch centroid of your wheel, the pinion also gets a new mating centroid to adapt. We suggest you view our tutorial video to get a better idea of the concepts behind them.

Functional Gear main screen in Gearotic CAD

Functional gears may be analysed by comparing the angular postion graph with the gear transfer function graph as shown in the three images below. In our case using Gearotic CAD, the gear transfer function indicates how fast the gear is going in relation to the master wheel while following all rules a gear must consist of to be a valid gear and mesh ability. This module allows users to use a bump action, or add a number of knots to a wheel, then nudge them individually to eventually get your functional shape results. To iterate, by moving these knots or bump tool around, your wheel will create an angular displacement on that wheel, corresponding to a new shape change, which then causes the transfer function to also change in shape by equation or function. The results can be non circular in shape, but definitely functional as a gear, and equal to an equation to boot.

Functional Knot Gear in Design

Functional Knot Gear Primary Wheel Toothed

Functional Knot Gear Pinion Toothed

Examples often become useful to analyse “what this all means” in general terms. So here’s another example of using a knot change on our wheel, once toothed the results you get.

 We hope you enjoy our Functional Gear module, not only to be used for those calculated function curves, but also for those perhaps odd and artistic shapes too. Our Gear Head forum is a great place to bring this topic up for discussion if any questions arise, brilliant feedback from supporters and members is often key to a solution.   

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