Design and Build of a Multi-Stage Gearbox for Undergraduate Machine Design Course

This paper reports on an engineering design projects involving undergraduate engineering students in a junior-level machine design class. The design project involves the design of a multi-stage, parallel shaft, gearbox. The outcome of this project is for the student to experience the open-ended, iterative nature of the design process, going above and beyond the well specified nature of the design of specific machine elements. Also, to experience the collaborative nature of a design, involving several separate design phases that ultimately need to be integrated. However, a mastery of the design of machine elements is still needed to complete these tasks. A case-study is presented whereby students built a working model of their gearbox and customized the device for in-class demos. The paper discusses how the model was used in class to show relationship between torque, speed and power using a visual, hands-on device.