universal-joint

A universal joint at 40° input, shafts 25° apart

Two shafts meeting at 25°, joined by a cross whose two pins are at right angles to each other and each at right angles to the shaft it carries. That is the whole geometry, and everything else follows from it. This is a four-joint spatial loop with all four axes through one point: Kutzbach counts −2 and the screw system has rank 3, so it has one degree of freedom and turns. At this instant the output shaft is at 42.79° while the input is at 40°, and the output is turning 1.0124 times as fast — which is not 1, and never is except at the four points of each turn where the curves cross.

Out of the planedraggable: input shaftwide

Where it is used

All 104 generators

All essaysFieldsThreadsLaddersThe mechanism ledgerRefutationsConceptsSearch