Hello and welcome to the 3D Printed CV Joint blog,
Constant Velocity (CV) joints allow for two shafts to be jointed at an angle while maintaining an output angular velocity equal to that of the input. These joints come in many different forms, but the type that our group will be attempting to build will be of the tracta joint variety as we feel that this configuration will allow us to best take advantage of the benefits 3D printing has to offer.
Project Purpose
- Create a functional CV joint
- Optimize tolerances for gaps and support material between moving parts
- Optimize print orientation to achieve best possible surface finish between moving parts
- Take advantage of 3D printing’s ability to manufacture “suspended” parts inside assemblies
Project Goals
- Print tracta CV joint with nested spherical housing (transparent if possible to display mechanism) as one assembly
- Minimize friction between moving parts
- Maximize functional range of motion
Our next entry will discuss the obstacles we expect by using the 3D printing process as well as our current work designing CAD models and hopefully the results of some preliminary prototypes. Hopefully we will gain some valuable knowledge about critical areas that will educate our inevitable decisions regarding trade-offs that must be made (i.e. printing in such and such orientation results in good surface finish here, but poor surface finish there, etc.).
Thank you, we’ll be back!