Shingley Hauler Gear Box

For my mechanical design course we were split into teams of 4 and assigned the task to build a gear box which could haul various loads up different angles quickly. Each team was given two sets of plastic gears with 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 teeth, and a 3V Mabuchi RE280 DC motor. The first step was to conduct gear train calculations to determine which gear ratios we would need to use to pull up the loads quickest. After which we designed a gear box using Solidworks, which we made many revisions to until we had decided upon a final design. At which point we machined the frame from 6061-T6 Aluminum on CNC and manual mills, turned shafts from 1020 cold rolled steel on manual lathes, and 3D printed electronic holding parts. After final assembly of the gear box we ran several tests and tuned our gear box to run smoothly. Our gearbox performed really well in the final competition against other teams’ gearboxes.  The video above shows the gear box hauling 6 books ( 26.4 lbs) up a 60 degree incline. Below are several pictures of the gear box.