Manufacturing Process For Collar The manufacturing of the collar has to follow certain steps in order for the

process to be as simple as possible. The collar will start off as a solid cylinder of EN24 with an outer diameter of 55-60mm, depending on the available stock. The cylinder will then be machined down to 50mm diameter. Once this outer diameter is reached, a diameter 20 hole will be drilled past the width of the collar. This is done to ensure a straight through hole once the collar is parted from the work piece. Once the hole is drilled, a boring bar will be used to enlarge the 20mm hole to 36mm up to a depth of 10.5. This rim that is left on the outside will later form the teeth of the collar that lock into the gear. Once the hole is enlarged, the slot in the middle of the width of the collar will be cut. A special groove cutting tool will need to be used to cut the slot, seeing as the slot is too narrow to accommodate a standard cutting tool. If a groove cutting tool cannot be acquired, a parting tool can be used to attain the depth, with forward and reverse cutting tools being used to cut the groove to an exact size. This second method, however, is not recommended. Once this has been accomplished, the collar will be parted 36mm from the face. After the collar has been parted, it will be clamped backwards in the lathe. It has to be clamped using a four jaw chuck in order to assure concentricity. Once the collar is clamped concentrically in the lathe, the 20mm hole will be machined to a diameter of 36mm, for a depth of 10.5mm, as before. This concludes the work done on a lathe. The cutting of the teeth will be done on the Haas CNC milling machine the baja team has access to. The programming of the CNC machine is beyond the scope of the text and will not be explained. The one side of the collar will be machined first, then the collar rotated by 180 to have the other side machined. After the teeth have been milled into the collar on both sides, the collar will be sent away to have the spline cut into the inner diameter by an outside company, seeing as the baja team does not have the equipment to cut splines. Manufacturing Analysis of Gears The manufacturing of the gears is one of the few components that will have to be done externally. Research that was done indicated that Rush Gears supply a wide range of gears in a variety of materials and configurations. Rush Gears also offer the service of manufacturing gears to any customised order. The first step in manufacturing the gears will be to log on to the Rush Gears website and place an order for the gears that are required. The website requires the modulus, number of teeth and the pressure angle. You are then supplied with a table containing all the possible sizes of gears that they can manufacture, including whether a hub next to the gear is required.

Once the gears are specified, the order is processed and the gears are then manufactured and posted. Rush Gears is a registered supplier of gears to South Africa, so the importing of the gears is not a problem. When the team receives the gears, the cutting of the slots in the hub can begin. These slots will mate with the teeth on the collar. The gear is to be clamped on a milling machine in a device that allows a part to be rotated through a precise angle when needed. To cut the slots, a 7mm end mill will be used, as it will provide the necessary radius at the end of the slot without complicating the cutting. Once a slot has been cut, the gear will be rotated through 36, after which the next slot will be cut. This process will continue until 10 slots are cut along the circumference of the hub. The next process will cut the angles in the face of the gear hub. These angles are essential to ensure that the gears mesh during operation. The cutting of these faces will be at the discretion of the manufacturer. The cuts could be made on a CNC milling machine or on a manual milling machine, though the manual milling machine will be more time consuming. The gears on the output shaft will not require any cutting after delivery. The keyways will be added by Rush Gears before delivery, saving the Baja team valuable time. Manufacturing Analysis of Casing The casing for the gear box is to be done on a CNC milling machine. The machining can be done by the Baja teams in the university workshops, seeing as there is a CNC milling machine available and several of the team members are qualified to operate it. The casing will start off as two solid blocks of 7075 aluminium. Each half of the casing will be machined down to size with all the features being added in one process. The details of the machining will be left to the team member in charge thereof. The base plate that attaches to the shifting mechanism will have to be machined from a separate block of aluminium. The geometry of the base plate is of such a nature that it prevents one simply cutting it from the rest of the casing. This base plate can be cut on any milling machine and can be manufactured at the same time as the rest of the casing, saving the team time. Shaft Manufacturing Analysis The gearbox contains a total of four shafts. The shafts were designed in such a manner that most of them can be manufactured by the members of the Baja team in the workshop. The only exception to this is the input shaft. The input shaft has a spline and will have to be sent away for manufacturing. This option will cost money, but at present the Baja team does not have the ability to manufacture splines. An advantage of the shaft being manufactured externally is that it frees up team members for other work. Special attention should be paid to the cutting of the shaft that moves the shifting fork. The shafts cross section changes shape near the end of the shaft, going from circular to square. It is recommended that the round section of the shaft me machined down to size first. At the position

where the cross section becomes square, the radius should change to the distance between the centre of the shaft and the corners of the square. This will allow the minimum amount of material to be wasted during manufacturing, seeing as a smaller initial circular cross section is needed. Shifting Fork Manufacturing analysis The manufacturing of the shifting fork will be manufactured in two stages. The first stage will the fork take its shape from a solid piece of EN24, while the second stage will have the fork electroplated in copper. The first stage will be done on the CNC milling machine, as it will be simplest. A rectangular bar of EN24 will be used as raw material for the part. Once the fork is manufactured, it will be sent to G.J Electroplating, based in Pretoria, to be electroplated with 0.5mm of copper. This copper will act as a bush to the collar when the fork moves it, preventing hard metals grinding each other away. Bronze Bush Manufacturing Analysis The bronze bushes will be used on the input shaft to prevent the gears and shaft damaging each other. The bushes will be cut from a solid circular bronze bar. During the machining, special care has to be taken with the surface finish. It is recommended that the lathes autofeed be used when cutting, while making the feed rate very slow. Polishing the bush is not recommended, it will yield a smooth finish, but polishing will cause a loss of tolerance. Collar Maintenance Analysis The dog tooth collar that is employed to engage the gear was designed to require little or no maintenance. The collars design is of such a nature that the only likelihood of it failing will be due to user error, such as attempting to shift gears during forward movement of the car. It is recommended that the entire gearbox be disassembled after every 50 hours of operation in order to inspect part wear. When removing the input shaft, the first inspection will be to move the collar until it meshes with one of the gears. The mesh must then be carefully inspected visually to determine if there was any deformation of the dog teeth. Any deformation will be easily seen, the teeth might have trouble meshing with the gear, or there might be visible gaps between the collar and gear once they are meshed. If this occurs, it will be an indication that the teeth have started failing. The severity of the problem will determine the action that is to be taken. If the deformation is of such a nature that simply meshing the teeth is problematic, the collar should be replaced. If the collar is still of such a nature that it can resume operation, it can be reinstalled. In such an event, it is recommended that the collar be inspected every 10-15 hours. This will allow an assessment of the damage and will indicate if the part might fail catastrophically. It will be at the discretion of the individual performing the maintenance checks to decide if the part can still be used in operation. Another area where the collar might show signs of wear is in the groove where it interfaces with the shifting fork. This groove might be worn away in the axial direction by the fork, which will result in the teeth not meshing fully with the gears. This can, in turn, cause the teeth to fail. The width of the

groove should be measured with a Vernier calliper or a micro meter. The width of the groove should be 5mm, within the tolerances specified in the drawings. Any increase in width should be analysed by the team to determine if it will affect operation. If the teeth no longer mesh satisfactorily, the collar should be replaced. Shifting Fork Maintenance Analysis The maintenance of the shifting fork will be more frequent than the rest of the gearbox. This is due to the fact that the shifting fork is electroplated. The electroplating of the fork prevents wear on the dog tooth collar, a part that is more expensive to manufacture. The fork should be inspected every 25 hours. The inspection is a simple visual check to see if the copper plating has been worn away at any location. If it is found that the copper has been worn away, two options are available, depending on the damage. In the event that the damage is minor, the team can decide to keep the fork in operation. If this option is selected, the fork will have to be inspected every 10-15 hours to re-assess the damage. The other available option will be to send the fork away to be re-electroplated, after which it can resume operation. The shifting fork should also be inspected for bending during routine checks. The likelihood of the fork bending is low, but it is a failure that should be taken into account nonetheless. This check can be done by checking if the arm of the fork is still perpendicular to the sleeve that slides over the shifting shaft. The arm can be checked for bending by using a perfectly flat surface to see if there is deflection at any point. Should the fork be bent, the team can decide if the deflection is severe enough to warrant a replacement or not. Gears Maintenance Analysis The maintenance of the gears will take place along with the maintenance of the collar and shifting fork, as the disassembly of any of these parts will necessitate the others to be removed as well. The gears will be inspected in a number of ways. The first inspection to be carried out will be a visual inspection of the gear teeth. The each gear should be slowly rotated by hand while being scrutinised for any irregularities. Attention should be paid to surface wear and tooth deflection. If surface wear is noted, it should be inspected whether the gear was mounted properly on the shaft, the mating gears mounting should also be inspected. Improper mounting can cause excess stresses on the gears and can lead to failure. Once the mountings have been checked, it should be decided if the wear allows the gear to resume operation or not. If the gear continues use, the maintenance period of the gearbox should be reduced to 10-15 hours in order to monitor the gear fatigue. If the teeth are noticed to have deflected, the mounting of the gear should be inspected, along with the mating gears mounting. If the gears teeth have been bent, it should be replaced. Bent teeth will damage the mating gear and can lead to catastrophic failure that might damage the housing and the other gear set. It is imperative that the cause of bent teeth be found before a new gear is installed in order to prevent a recurrence of the problem.

After the gear teeth have been inspected, the two gears on the input shaft will be further scrutinised. The slots cut into the hub should be checked for any damage or surface wear. Wear might present as scoring of the surfaces, while damage may be in the form of chipped edges. Once again it will be the decision of the team whether the gear needs replacing or not. If the gear shows signs of wear or damage, a possible cause might be that the driver attempted to change gears while the car was moving. If the damage is minor, the team should consider shortening the maintenance intervals to 10-15 hours. After the gear hubs have been examined, the bronze bushes should be inspected for wear. The inner diameter of the bushes should be measured with a micro meter to determine if there has been any change in diameter. If the bushes have been worn, they should be replaced. Worn bushes might cause damage to the gears due to the improper mating of teeth and can reduce the lifespan of the entire gearbox. The gears on the output shaft only have one other inspection, other than the teeth inspection. The keys securing the gears rotationally should be inspected for possible shearing and bending. If the keys show any signs of wear, they should be replaced immediately.