Have you ever wondered how four-wheel drive works?

Earlier this week I covered how helical gears are found in the latest video game equipment. Today, I found a post on Pitchcare Magazine's website about how the new Kubota tractor is gaining traction from its bevel gear-driven 4WD system,

The operator can enjoy many hours of use without fatigue, as Kubota have, as always, put a lot of emphasis on driver comfort. The full hydrostatic power steering, matched with Kubota's bevel gear 4WD system means light, responsive, tighter turning for maximum productivity.

Really, bevel gears are ideal for applications like this. In a four-wheel drive system, all four wheels need to be driven simultaneously (obviously). Therefore, the drivetrain needs to turn both axles. The way a bevel gear works is by connecting shafts at 90 degree angles (generally, although they can connect shafts at different angles). Therefore, since the driveshaft is perpendicular to the wheel axles, all four wheels can be turned simultaneously. The same principle applies to four-wheel drive automobiles.


I hope this post helped illustrate how something we take for granted--four-wheel drive--is actually the result of a fairly elegant engineering element.

$300 for a video game controller? Must be the helical gears!

I noticed some gear news tucked into a press release for a new Logitech video game steering wheel:

Logitech (SIX: LOGN) (NASDAQ: LOGI) today announced the Logitech® G27 Racing Wheel. Designed to deliver the definitive sim racing experience for the PC and PLAYSTATION®3, the G27 features a powerful, dual-motor force feedback mechanism that smoothly and accurately delivers high-fidelity force effects to the hand-stitched leather wheel, so you can feel traction loss, weight shift, and the surface of the road. The helical gears deliver exceptionally quiet steering action, virtually eliminating noise and unwanted vibration.

It is neat to see the peripherals manufacturer giving some credit to the inner components that make its products actually work well. For the record, helical gears are types of gears whose teeth are not set parallel to the axis; that is, they're set to an angle (which makes them appear in the shape of a helix, from the outside). They run more quietly and smoother than the more common spur gear.

On the Car that Saved BMW

There's an interesting article about the BMW 700--ie, the Car That Saved BMW--in the Sydney Central. Apparently, back in the 50s, BMW was not the cultural icon that it is today. At the time, it was a motorcycle manufacturer, but the motorcycle business was going south pretty rapidly. The company's automobile manufacturing business was also tanking, and things looked fairly bleak.

Enter the BMW 700. By using as much of the previous model--the 600--as possible and redesigning where necessary, BMW was able to come up with a unique, compelling car. And in the center of it all, we find--a bevel gear differential:

Further features carried over from the BMW 600 were the all-synchromesh four-speed transmission as well as the bevel gear differential and, the flat-twin power unit originally used on BMW motorcycles and now increased in size from 600 to 700cc.

The newly introduced 700 was a success, and the now-legendary automaker got a second chance at life.

When (Gear) Worlds Collide

There's some recent news from Engineerlive.com about a new gear design from Rotalink. Apparently, the company has created a new design that combines spur and planetary gear stages within a standard ovoid gearbox. The company claims the design results in a 400% torque increase.

Gear Manufacturer News Flying Under the Radar

Here's a little bit of gear manufacturer news that flew under the radar. Gear Technology, a California-based gear manufacturer that specializes in manufacturing gears for the aerospace, military, and commercial industries agreed to provide its services to Triumph Aerospace Systems. The deal reached agreement at the beginning of July 2009. The deal is expected to last five years with Gear Technology manufacturing precision machine gear equipment, including shafts, splined rings, and splined spacers for the military's V-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft.

How Much Sugar Can Thirty-Eight Tons of Gear Process?

On Monday it was announced that the industrial supplies giant Bearing Man Group commissioned two sugarcane mill drives at its Zambia-based Nakambala sugar mill. The gear units are capable of a peak output of 4 million Newton meters of torque, which should add quite a bit of crushing force to the mill, to say the least.

The gears' design consists of a primary helical gear stage, a secondary planetary stage, and a main load distribution stage at which power is split and distributed into the final-stage gear sets. Driving the gears is are 850 kilowatt, six-pole electric motors. The gears were manufactured , assembled, and tested in Germany; they were then disassembled and shipped to Zambia. If it's true that you can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs, it's equally true that you can't make something sweet without crushing some sugarcane. Assuredly, the world will be a sweeter place.

More Gear News Out of India

In other news, Shanthi Gears, a Coimbatore, India-based gear manufacturer, recently announced the end of a lock-out in its six manufacturing plants. On 20 July 2009, the company had announced a scheduled lock-out that seems to have been incited by its firing approximately 200 apprentice workers. Fired workers retaliated by gathering in protest in front of Centre of Indian Trade Unions and throwing stones at a company bus. The company stated that the firings were due to the recent economic slowdown.

Roller Chain Manufacturer Acquires Gear Manufacturer

In a bit of horizontal building, LG Balakrishnan & Bros Limited, a Coimbatore, India-based roller chain manufacturer has recently acquired MM Gears Pvt Limited, which is also based in Coimbatore. MM Gears is known for manufacturing worm gearboxes, helical gearboxes, geared motors, and non-standard gearboxes.

Coimbatore is situated on the banks of the Noyyal River and is the second-largest city in the state of Tamil Nadu. Its primary industries are engineering and textiles. Coimbatore also houses the majority of India's hosiery and poultry industries.