I have 3d printed gears driving an RC vehicle. When the drive train is obstructed, the gears grind and wear down.
I could buy metal gears and modify my project to use them, or send my CAD files to a machine shop and have them produce a metal gear. But should I?
Are the PC/GF etc filaments sufficiently tougher to alleviate this?
If not, if I make one of the gears out of a more resistant filament, and the other from regular PLA, is the difference enough to keep the damage to a single gear? This would make repairs much easier.
PS: Why isn’t there a category for mechanical engineering questions relating to 3d print? (Or why can’t I find it if there is).
edit: To provide information on why we want to continue to drive against an obstruction to motion, the vehicle is fully tracked and using twin motors. It is intended to power over obstacles. In this case we have sufficient motor torque to drive the track and continue to move, but the gears cannot deliver it.
My mistake, you have a good idea but I should have mentioned the vehicle is fully tracked and twin motor, and therefore would not be wanting a differential. I’ve updated the post to indicate this.
Thank you, I had not considered hard TPU gears. Do you mean hardness above 95A? I have seen 97A and 98A filaments easily available. They will certainly last longer against grinding. However, do you have any advice on how much power they can deliver? (I will print a TPU gear and test within week, as my print schedule allows it)
Conventional engineering wisdom would suggest Nylon is the best candidate for gears amongst the common FDM filament options. I’ve had good luck with it. Go for something without CF/GF, as those only serve to increase friction. You can also try decreasing the number of teeth so each is larger, but perhaps you’ve already optimized that variable.