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Final Project: Gearbox Design

Apply your new CAD skills to design and assemble a functional planetary gearbox for a robotics drive pod.

Two-Stage Spur Gearbox — complete assembly with housing, shafts, and gear train (9:1 total ratio).

Planetary Gear Set — sun, planets, carrier, and ring gear in a compact coaxial arrangement.

Putting It All Together

Throughout this course, you've learned the fundamentals of part design, constraints, and assemblies. It's time to build a real-world component: a gearbox.

1
Part Design: The Gears

Start by sketching the involute profiles for the sun gear, planet gears, and the ring gear. Use the Revolve and Extrude tools, ensuring you maintain a constant module and pressure angle across all gears.

2
Part Design: The Carrier

Design a durable carrier to hold the planet gears. Ensure the axle holes have a proper transition fit to securely hold the steel shafts without binding.

3
The Assembly Workflow

Bring the parts into a new assembly file. Ground the ring gear. Use Revolute joints for the sun gear and the carrier. Then, apply rigid joints to pin the planet gears onto the carrier axles.

Design for Manufacturing Checklist

Before exporting to STL or STEP, verify:

  • Fillets are applied to the internal corners of the carrier plates.
  • The clearance between the gear teeth is at least 0.15mm (for FDM 3D printing).
  • Sufficient wall thickness around press-fit bearings.
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