1

Mechanical & Hydraulic Transmissions

• Transmit motion from external source to operative
elements.
• External source a 3 phase motor which has rotary motion.
• Rotary motion of output shaft transmitted to operative
element to provide an appropriate working/auxiliary
motion.

• If rotary motion is required, the transmission is takes place

through mechanisms that transfer rotary motion from one
shaft to another.
• However, if Translatory motion is required to transfer the
transmission invariably includes mechanisms for
transforming rotary motion to translatory motion.
• Transmission through mechanical elements: gear, chain,
belt or by means of hydraulic.
• Mechanical drives may be stepped or step-less type, but
hydraulic drives are step-less in nature.

• Machine tool drives consists of two things:

1. An electric motor
2. Transmission arrangement

Selection of electric motor

• For machine tool it is known that a three phase
asynchronous ac motors are generally used as the source
of power.
• The power rating of the electric motor in general purpose
machine tools is calculated by the formula

Where :
• Nm= power rating of the electric motor (kW)
• Nc = total power required for removing metal (kW)
• η = coefficient of efficiency of the drive
• Coefficient of efficiency lies between 0.8-0.85 for
machine tool with rotary primary motion and 0.6-0.7 for
machine tool with reciprocating primary cutting motion.
Mechanical Transmission & its Elements
• Mechanical transmission employed for transmitting rotary
as well as translatory motion to the operative elements in
stepped & step-less regulation of speed & feed rates.
Classification of Mechanical Transmission Elements
1. Elementary transmissions that transfer rotation,
Gear, Belt, Chain.
2. Elementary transmissions that transform rotary motion into translatory,
Slider crank, crank & rocker, cam, nut & screw, rack & pinion,
mechanism
3. Devices for intermittent motion,
Pawl & ratchet, Geneva
4. Reverse & differential mechanisms,
Reversing, differential
5. Special mechanisms & device,
Gear cone with sliding key, Norton gear, Meander’s mechanism.
6. Coupling & clutches,
Coupling, clutches.
Elementary transmissions that transfer rotation
1. Gear transmission :
Rotary motion from one shaft to another, the RPM of the
driven is determine as: n1z1 = n2z2

• The ratio Z1/Z2 is known as the transmission ratio of the

gear drive and is constant for a particular gear pair.
• Rotation is transmitted between parallel shafts by means
of spur, helical and herringbone gears.
• Spur gears have teeth parallel to the axis of the rotation.
• In helical gears the teeth are inclined with respect to the
axis of rotation at an angle known as the helix angle .
• The herringbone gear is essentially a pair of helical gears
in which the helix angle is oppositely directed.
• Spur gears are used in the sliding gear boxes, while
helical gears are preferred when the gear pairs are
permanently in meshing.
• Transmission of rotation between inclined intersecting
axes is done with the help of bevel gears.
• The angle between the inclined axis is generally 900 and
the bevel gear transmission is commonly employed for
transmitting rotation between perpendicular shafts.
• Transfer rotation between skewed axis, i.e., axis that are
inclined to each other but don not intersect, is achieved by
means of a spiral gear transmission or worm – worm gear
transmission.
• The spiral gear transmission is characterized by point
contact between the meshing gears, and therefore, it cannot
be employed for transmitting large torques.
• In machine tools, the worm-worm gear transmission is
commonly employed to achieve a heavy speed reduction.
• Since the contact between the worm and worm gear is along
a line, this pair can transmit large torques.
• It should be noted that the worm-worm gear transmission
is irreversible and rotation may be transmitted from the
worm to the worm gear, but not the vice versa.

• The worm is in principle a helical screw and the rpm of the

worm gear can be determined by the relationship
Advantage and Disadvantage of Gear Transmission
1. Spur Gear
Advantage
• Offers constant velocity ratio.
• It is the simplest, easiest to design and manufacture.
• Spur gear teeth are parallel to its axis, hence spur gear
train does not produce axial thrust. Therefore the shafts
can be mounted easily using ball bearings.
• Used to transmit large amount of power.
Disadvantage
• Are slow speed gears.
• Gear teeth experience a large amount of stress.
• Cannot transfer power between non-parallel shafts.
• Cannot be used for long distance power transmission.
• Produce a lot of noise when operating at high speeds.
2. Helical gears
Advantage
• The angled teeth engage more gradually than spur gear
teeth.
• Are highly durable and ideal for high load application.
• At any given time their load is distributed over several
teeth, resulting in less wear.
• Can transmit motion and power between either parallel or
right angle shafts.
Disadvantage
• Efficiency of helical gear is less because helical gear trains
have sliding contact between the teeth which in turns
produce axial thrust of gear shafts and generate more loss
and less efficiency.
3. Bevel Gear
Advantage
• This gear makes it possible to change the operating angel.

Disadvantage
• One wheel of such gear is designed to work with its
complimentary wheel and no other.
• Must be precisely mounted.
• The shaft bearing must be capable of supporting
significant force.
4. Worm Wheel - Advantage
• Worm gear drives operates silently and smoothly.
• They are self locking
• They occupy less space
• Good meshing effectiveness
• Can be used for reduction and incremental of torque
• High velocity ratio of the order of 100 can be obtained in
a single steps
Disadvantage
• Are expensive
• Worm drive have high power loss
• Due to sliding action they may have low efficiency
• Produce lot of heat
4. Rack and pinion
Advantage
• Cheap, compact, robust.
• Easiest way to convert rotational motion in to linear
motion.
• Rack and pinion give easier and more compact control
over the vehicle
Disadvantage
• Can only work with certain levels of friction.
Gear ratio and gear trains
• The gear ratio R also known as speed ratio of a gear is
defined as the ratio of angular velocity of the input
gear(driver gear)relative to that of the out put
gear(driven gear).
• Consider a pinion 2 driving a gear 3, the speed of the gear
is:

• The absolute value sign is to give freedom in choosing

positive or negative direction.
Gear train
• It is a gear set that consists of more than two gears. In
general, there can be several driving gears (input) and
several driven gears (out puts).
• Any gear that is not giving any input torque nor taking
any out put torque is called an idler gear.
• For a gear train the gear ratio is found as:

• For the gear train shown in the figure , pinion 2 is the

input gear and gear 6 is the out put gear (other gears are
idlers), the gear ratio is found to be:
• Note that gears 2,3, and 5 are drivers while gears 3,4 and
6 are driven and the speed of the gear 6 is:
2. Belt Transmission
• Belt drives are called flexible machine elements.
• Flexible machine elements are used for a large number of
industrial applications :
1. Used in conveying systems
• Transportation of coal, mineral ores etc. over a long
distance.
2. Used for transmission of power.
• Mainly used for running of various industrial
appliances using prime movers like electric motors, I.C.
Engine etc.
3. Replacement of rigid type power transmission system.
• A gear drive may be replaced by a belt transmission
system.
Benefits of belt drives:
• It can absorb a good amount of shock and vibration.
• It can take care of some degree of misalignment between
the driven and the driver machines.
• long distance power transmission, in comparison to other
transmission systems is possible.
• Smooth and jerk free rotation which enables its
application in high speed machine tools like grinding
machine.
• The most common arrangement of belt drive in machine
tool:
• Open belt arrangement is employed for transmitting
motion between parallel shafts rotating in the same
direction.
• The cross belt arrangement is used when rotation is
transmitted between parallel shafts rotating in opposite
direction.
• Quarter turned arrangement is used for transmitting
rotation between skewed shafts.

• In machine tool we may use different type of belts like, V

shaped belt, flat belt and round belt.
• Round belts find application in table model machine tools
in which torques are of small magnitude.
• Flat belts are the most versatile as they can be employed in
all the three arrangements.
• The load carrying capacity of the flat belt can be improved
by increasing its width.
• In flat belt drives only one belt is used.
• In V-belts transmission a number of V-belts (generally two
to four) are used for varying the load carrying capacity in
order to avoid large bending stress in one V-belt.
• V-belts are usually employed only in the open belt
arrangement.
• Drawback of the belt transmission are its relatively large
dimension and inability to guaranty constant transmission
ratio due to unavoidable slip between the belt and
pulleys.
Nomenclature of Open Belt Drive
Nomenclature of Crossed Belt
Velocity ratio of belt drive
• Velocity ratio of belt drive is defined as,

Power transmission of belt drive

Power transmission of a belt drive is expressed as:
• The rpm of the driven shaft in the belt drive may be
determined by the relationship:
3. Chain transmission
• Chain can be defined as a series of links connected by pin
joints.
• A chain drive consists of an endless chain wrapped
around two sprockets.
• Transmitting rotation only b/n parallel shafts that are
located at considerable distance.
• The chain transmission consists of a driving sprocket,
driven sprocket & chain.
• Chain transmission is used when it is essential to keep
the dimension of the drive within reasonable limits &
also ensure transmission without slip.
•The rpm of the driven shaft is determined as;

Advantage of chain drives

• A number of shafts and be driven from a single chain.
• Compact and have small overall dimensions.
• Temperature and environmental condition do not affect
their working.
• Do not slip.
• Easier to install and for maintenance.
• Can withstand abrasive condition.
Disadvantage of chain drives
• Requires precise alignment compared to belt drives.
• Require frequent lubrication.
• Have less load capacity compared with gear drives.
• Operation is noisy and can cause vibration.
• Not suitable for non parallel shafts
• Requires housing for machineries.

Application of chain drives

• Chain drives used for power transmission.
• Used in transportation.
• Used in wood working and simple load machineries.
• Used in agricultural machineries.
 Elementary transmissions that transform
rotary motion into Translatory:

1. Slider Crank Mechanism:

• The mechanism consists of a crank, connecting rod &
slider.
• The forward & back strokes each take place during half
a revolution of the crank. Therefore, the speed of
forward & reverse speeds in the slider crank
mechanism are identical.
• The slider crank mechanism is used only in machine
tools with small strokes (<300mm).
• The length of stroke may be changed by adjusting the
crank radius & is equal to L = 2R, where R is the crank
radius.
2. Crank & Rocker Mechanism:
• It consists of a rotating crank which makes the rocker
arm oscillate by means of a block sliding along the
groove in the rocker arm.
• Since α > β & the crank rotates with uniform speed, the
idle stroke is completed faster than the cutting stroke.
• The length of stroke can be varied by adjusting the
crank radius.
• The crank & rocker is preferred in machine tools with
large strokes (up to 1000mm) in the drive of the primary
cutting motion of shaping & slotting machines
• The length of stroke can be calculated from the
expression:
The Quick-return Mechanism
• The maximum speed occurs when the link is vertical.
• The speed of the link at point P for a given stroke length L
will be that at the corresponding crank radius r, hence, the
cutting speed Vc at point P1 is:
• In terms of the stroke length for maximum radius using
similar triangles OBA & OCD
3. Cam Mechanism:
• The cam mechanism consists of a cam & a follower. It
can provide the desired Translatory motion if a suitable
profile is selected.
• The profile may be provided:
a. On the periphery of a disc-disc type cam mechanism
b. On the face of a disc-face type cam mechanism
c. On the cylindrical surface-drum type cam mechanism
• The main advantage of cam mechanisms is that the
velocity of the operative element is independent of the
design of the driving mechanism and is controlled by the
cam profile.
• For example; in a disc type cam, if the radius changes
from R1 to R2 along an Archimedes spiral while the cam
rotates through angle α , the velocity of the follower can
be expressed as:
• Similarly, in face or drum type cam mechanisms, the
speed of the follower depends up on the steepness of the
groove.
• Consider the profile development of the drum cam shown
in the figure below, segment a depicts the steep rise of the
follower corresponding to the rapid advance, segment b
depicts the slow rise corresponding to the working stroke
and segment c the steep fall corresponding to the rapid
withdrawal of the cutting tool.
• The working stroke can be determined by the following
relationship;

• It should be kept in mind that cam mechanism are costly

and new set is required whenever any change in working
condition is sought to be incorporated.
• Cam mechanisms are generally used in automatic
machine tools for mass production of components.
Nut and screw transmission
• The screw and nut have a trapezoidal/square thread.
• When the screw is fixed axially, is rotated, the nut moves
along the screw axis.
• The direction of movement can be reversed by reversing
the rotation of the screw.
• The nut and screw transmission is compact but has a high
load carrying capacity.
• Other advantages like simplicity, easy of manufacturing
and possibility of achieving slow and uniform movement
of the operative members.
• The speed of the operative members can be found from
the relationship:
• The major drawback of the nut and screw transmission is
its low coefficient of efficiency due to large frictional
losses.
• This restricts its application in machine tools to feed and
auxiliary motion drives.
• Now a days the sliding friction between the nut and screw
is replaced by rolling friction by introducing intermediate
members such as balls and rollers.
• The thread of the screw and nut in this case is usually half
round and the transmission has provision for backlash
elimination by pre loading.
• The efficiency of the anti-friction nut and screw
transmission reaches 0.9-0.95 as compared to 0.2-0.4 of
the sliding friction transmission.
• It is used in numerically controlled machine tools in
which backlash is extremely undesirable.
Rack and pinion transmission
• When the rotating gear(pinion) mesh with the stationary
rack, the center of the gear moves in a straight line.
• On the other hand, if the gear axis is stationery, then the
rack executes Translatory motion.
• The direction of motion can be reversed by reversing the
rotation of the pinion.
• The speed of the operative member in this transmission
can be found from the relationship:

• Rack and pinion transmission is the simplest and

cheapest among all types of transmission used in
reversible drives.
• Provide high efficiency and large transmission ratio
which makes it possible to use it in the feed as well as
main drive motions of machine tools.
• Due to absence of self-locking, rack and pinion
transmission cannot be applied for vertical movement of
the operative element.
 3.Device for intermittent motion
• In some machine tools, it is required that the relative
position between the cutting tool and the work piece
should change periodically.
• Intermittent motion is essential in:
1. Machine tools with a reciprocating primary cutting
motion example, feed motion of the shaping machine.
2. Machine tools with reciprocating feed motion,
example grinding machine
3.1 Ratchet – gear mechanism
• It consists of a pawl mounted on an oscillating pin.
• During each oscillation in the anti clock wise direction,
the pawl turns the ratchet wheel through a particular
angle.
• During the clockwise oscillation in the opposite direction,
the pawl simply slide over the ratchet teeth and the later
remains stationery.
• The ratchet wheel is linked to the machine tool table
through a nut and screw transmission.
• Therefore the periodic rotation of the ratchet wheel is
transformed in to the intermittent Translatory motion of
the table.

• The ratchet gear mechanism is most suitable in case when

the periodic displacement must be completed in a short
time.
• Example feed mechanism of shaping, planning and
grinding
Geneva mechanism
• It consists of a driving disc which rotate continuously and
a wheel with four radial slots.
• The arcs on the driving disc and wheel provide a locking
effect against rotation of the slotted wheel.
• In Geneva mechanism, the angle of rotation of the wheel
cannot be varied.
• This mechanism is mainly used in turrets and single
spindle automatic machines for indexing cutting tools and
in multiple spindle automatic machines for indexing
spindles through a constant angle.
4. Reversing and differential mechanism
Reversing mechanism
• This mechanism is used to change the direction of motion
of the operative member.
• Reversing is accomplished generally through spur and
helical gears or bevel gears.
• Reversing mechanism using spur gear
• It should be noted that in the reversing mechanism the
ratio of direct and reversal speeds will depend up on the
transmission ratio of gear pairs.
• Faster reversal speed can be achieved by selecting a larger
transmission ratio for the gear pair used in the reversal
train.
• Reversing mechanism using bevel gear.
Differential mechanism
• This mechanisms are used for summing up two motions
in machine tools in which the operative member gets
input from two separate kinematic chain.
• They are generally employed in thread and gear cutting
machine where the machined surface is obtained as a
result of the summation of two or more forming motion.

Reading Assignment
1. Read about special mechanism and devices employed in
machine tool feed box:
I. Gear cone with sliding key
II. Norton gear mechanism
III. Meanders mechanism
Coupling and clutch
• Coupling and clutch are device used for connecting one
rotating shaft to another.

• If the two shafts are connected permanently so that they

can be disengaged only by disassembling the connecting
devices the device known as Coupling .

• Devices that can readily engage shafts to transmit power

and disengage them when desired are known as clutch.

• Rigid, flexible and elastic type of coupling are there.

• Coupling are generally used in machine tools for
connecting the motor shaft of the speed or feed box.
• Clutch can be roughly classified as positive action clutch
and friction clutch.
• A positive action clutch is incapable of slipping.
• It can be engaged only when the shafts to be connected
are stationery or are rotating at identical speed.
• A friction clutch as the name implies, transmits torque by
virtue of friction between the two halves.
• It can engage shafts rotating with different speeds or a
rotating shaft with a stationery shaft.
Hydraulic Transmission and its Elements
• Hydraulic transmission is used in machine tools for
providing rotary as well as Translatory motion.
• Hydraulic transmission provides stepless regulation of the
speed and feed rate.
Basic Components of a Hydraulic System

Hydraulic actuator: convert the fluid power into

mechanical power (linear or rotary type).
Hydraulic pump: force the fluid from the reservoir to
the rest of the hydraulic circuit
 Valves: control the direction, pressure and flow rate of a
fluid.
 External power supply (motor): drive the pump.
 Reservoir: hold the hydraulic liquid, usually hydraulic oil.
 Piping system: carries the hydraulic oil from one place to
another.
 Filters : remove any foreign particles.
 Pressure regulator: regulates the required level of
pressure in the hydraulic fluid.
Rotary hydraulic drive
1. The electric motor rotates the rotor of vane pump
through gear pair Z1/Z2.
2. During rotation, the pump sucks in oil from the reservoir
and delivers it under pressure to the hydraulic motor.
3. The hydraulic motor is in principle, another vane pump
mounted in the reverse manner, so that oil delivered under
pressure rotates its vanes and hence the rotor.

4. From the output shaft of the hydraulic motor, rotary

motion is transmitted to the machine tool spindle through
a belt drive.

5. A pressure valve in the delivery line limits the maximum

pressure at which oil is delivered to the hydraulic motor.
6. The actual pressure can be read on the pressure gauge.
Translatory hydraulic drive
1. The drive consists of a gear pump which sucks oil from the
reservoir and delivers it to the direction control value
through a throttle.
2. The function of the throttle is to enable regulation of the
speed of travel of the operative element.
3. In the position of the control valve drawn by firm lines, oil
is delivered into the right hand chamber of the hydraulic
cylinder, moving the piston towards the left.
4. The machine tool table which is rigidly attached to the
piston is also moved leftwards.
5. Oil from the left hand chamber of the hydraulic cylinder
returns to the reservoir through the direction control valve.
6. The control valve piston is coupled to the operative
element by means of a rocking lever.
7. Therefore, the leftward movement of the machine tool
table accompanied by a movement of the control valve
piston in the same direction.
8. The leftward movement of the table stops when the
control valve piston comes to occupy the position shown
by dotted lines.

9. In this position, oil begins to flow in the left hand

chamber of the hydraulic cylinder, pushing the piston
rightwards, thus reversing the direction of Translatory
motion of the table.

10. The hydraulic circuit has a pressure valve to drain off

excessive oil which does not pass through the throttle
aperture.
Important elements of hydraulic transmission
1. Pump: the pump is primarily serve the purpose of
sucking oil and delivering it under pressure to various
hydraulic devices.
• On the basis of operating principle , pumps can be
classified as constant delivery pumps and variable
delivery pump.
• A type of constant delivery pumps generally employed in
machine tools are gear pump and vane pump.
Gear pump
• The pump consists of a pair of meshing gears of which the
driving gear is directly coupled to an electric motor.
• The oil is sucked in to the gap between the meshing teeth
on the suction side and squeezed out under pressure on the
delivery side.
Vane pump
• The rotor mounted on a splined shaft rotates inside the
stator.
• As the rotor rotates, the vanes reciprocate radially and
complete two complete cycles of suction and delivery in
one revolution of the rotor.
• Pocket 1 and 2 serve for suction, 3 and 4 for delivery.
• The vane pumps generally consist of a rotor, vanes, ring
and a port plate with inlet and outlet ports.
• The variable delivery pumps commonly used in machine
tool hydraulic drives are vane pumps and radial piston
pumps.
• The vanes reciprocate in radial slot of the rotor which is
eccentrically mounted with respect to the stator.
• The rotor axis is generally fixed but the stator can be
displaced to vary eccentricity and hence pump delivery.
• The stator in this case has a circular profile, and therefore,
no delivery takes place if the rotor and the stator axes
become concentric.
• The radial reciprocation of vanes is controlled by means
of rollers, attached to the vanes, that move in annular
guiding ring concentric with the stator.
• The volume of oil delivered by a variable delivery vane
pump is given by the expression:
• The working principle of the radial piston pump is similar
to that of the variable delivery vane pump.
• The only difference is that the vanes are replaced by mini
piston, each of which reciprocates in its cylinder.
• Piston pumps can be manufactured with tighter fits and
are distinguished by lower leakage losses.
• The volume of oil delivered by a radial piston pump may
be determined by the following expression:
• In practice, only variable delivery vane pumps and radial
piston pumps are used because they ensure a wider range
of speed regulation and also have higher efficiency than
gear pumps, especially at low speeds.

2. Hydraulic cylinders
• Are used in hydraulic drives where translatory motion of
the operative element is required.
• A simple cylinder with the piston rod only on one side
provides different piston velocities in two direction.
• Double end rod cylinder provides identical piston velocity
in both direction.
• The piston speed and flow rate of the oil to the cylinder
are of oil to the cylinder are related as follows:
Q= A.v
3. Direction control valves:
• The function of these valves is to change the direction of
fluid flow.
• Available as a rotary, spool and with the sliding piston.
1. The valve is divided in to two halves by a partition.
2. The valves has four ports 1,2,3,4 of which ports 1 and 2
are connected to the two chambers of the hydraulic
cylinder, while ports 3 and 4 are connected to the pump
line and reservoir respectively.
3. The direction of oil flow is reversed by rotation of the
partition inside the valve body.
4. When the partition occupies the position shown by firm
lines, port 1 is connected to the pump and oil s delivered
to the left hand chamber of the cylinder.
5. At the same time the oil in the right hand chamber of the
cylinder is discharged into the reservoir through ports 2
and 4.
5. When the partition occupies the piston, depicted in figure
by dotted lines, the port connections get reversed,
6. i.e. the pump gets connected to the right hand chamber
of the cylinder through port 2, while the oil in the left
hand chamber is discharged into the reservoir through
ports 1 and 4.
7. The direction of the piston is thus reversed by shifting
the partition from one position to the other.
4. Pressure valve
• The function of pressure valve is to limit the pressure in a
particular line of the hydraulic circuit.
• Pressure valves are used as safety valve to protect the
system against excessive pressure and as pass valves to
drain off the excessive amount of oil.
• The simplest type of pressure valve is the ball or poppet
valve.
• When the pressure of oil coming through port 1 exceeds
the spring pressure, the ball is raised and the oil is drained
back into the reservoir through port 2 and 3.
• The ball or poppet valve is generally used only as a safety
valve.
• Ports 1 and 2 of the valve are connected to the pressure
line the former directly and latter through a constricted
passage.
• Port 3 is connected to the reservoir.
• In the condition of equilibrium:
• When due to increase in the pressure, force P + F exceeds
Ps + W, the spool gets displaced upward and port 1 gets
directly connected to port 3, thus allowing excessive oil to
be drained back to the reservoir and resulting in fall of
pressure.
5. Throttle
• Flow control valve with a fixed orifice are used in
machine tool to minimize vibration and smooth out
transient flow .
• Flow control valves or throttles which have provision for
changing the area of the constricted passage are used to
regulate the oil flow in machine tool hydraulic system.
• The area of constricted passage is varied by displacing a
movable member like disc and needle valve.
• If the pressure or temperature of the oil changes, the flow
through the valve can change even at a fixed setting of the
constricted passage.
End of Chapter Three