Who is taking over with F360 help while @TinWhisperer is on sabbatical?
I have a Design/Build coming up that will be needing to check movement on a LARGE chain driven item that I would like to be able to simulate in F360 to verify my plan.
Also going to be utilizing a 3D scanner to get data to reverse engineer the item @holla2040 - (might need your help also)
I know that the driven gear is elliptical (egg shaped) so trying to simulate that with a simulated chain otta’ be a hoot.
There is a big gap left ‘there’, for sure. I am certainly not anywhere in that league. I have dabbled with the movement of components but it felt like I was target shooting with a mirror over my shoulder.
I’m new here, but I can help out some. I am in the beta program at autodesk, and have signed an NDA, so I couldn’t post screenshots. Otherwise, I can try and help some.
My name is Kyle. Robotics Engineering supervisor for a robotics welding company.
Post up your questions. Tinwisperer might have been the go to with Fusion Q’s but many of us here can/will jump in and help out where we can. I can post screenshots so maybe between Kyle_AWM and I we can cover some things.
Sounds like a fun project! My 3d scanner experience was great at first but was short lived and returned the einscan-sp. I got it used for reasonable price. I did order some Aesub but didn’t want to be spraying everything all the time to scan and get a good model. Just message me if you need anything and I’ll try to help. I have played with some animation in fusion about 6 months ago. Sounds like you want to do some motion links with gears.
Welcome Bruce! I see you are an old timer here! And it is much appreciated to see all of the folks that have continued to help out with Fusion 360 questions and will continue to help others.
Sometimes when a door closes another opens.
I am hopeful that Tin will eventually have freedom in his schedule to return. He brings a tremendous wealth of knowledge and his manual library to the forum and is very measured in his responses. And, he is able to stay “on topic” with his comments, vs. yours truly. And, from what I can tell, he does not sleep.
Thank you for all the offers. I’ll do up a quick theoretical sketch tomorrow morning and post. Detailed version in a couple weeks. Have to learn how to convert mesh and get a drawing.
Quick video on adding Step file from McMaster-Carr and making sprocket move. It can be a little tricky the first few times. It’s been a few months, so I had to think about it and fumble around for a minute. GL and hopefully this helps get you going.
Glad I did not post. I did not think that they would have a sprocket for 160H chain.
I should get some usable data from that.
ETA*
I just watched a couple vids on modeling chain and movement, and I think what I am asking is beyond a reasonable need for what I am doing. Waaaaay too much work, and I don’t know that it will handle a elliptical sprocket that changes chain tension as it goes around - which is what I would like to see other than in my head. R&D a tensioner for an out of round 7’ dia drum sprocket, with a 10" drive.
Sticks,
I’m going to say this might be more of an engineering question than a Fusion360 question. I think you can get F360 to accurately sim the chain on the elliptical gear but you’re going to need to draw every link in the chain separately and make sure that the parent child relationships are setup correctly.
To knock up a quick tensioner figure out the max amount of offset in the elliptical gear, and the max stretch for you type of chain. That length would be the length of the pivot arm for the tensioner. If the “fixed” gear had enough adjustment for the chain stretch (like a gear on a motor with tension adjustment) you can get away with an arm that 's pretty much the length of the E-Gear offset. With all this you want to add a little bit because you don’t want the tensioner to work at it’s max limit and you have to factor in gear wear / tolerances. To calculate the amount of spring force you’ll need to know (roughly) the total pull weight on the chain. It’s been to long since I was in School to tell you how to do that.
I hope to have some pics or rough CAD of the offending part in the next week.
This type of F60 drawing is like Senior Trig, and I am a fourth grader that just learned long division and decimal places.
I was really hoping to be able to mock up in CAD the tensioners (dual chain - left and right) to see the best angle and travel. Probably asking a lot, but I might be able to get close. I might have to settle for a “belt” as a replacement for the chain.
In basic Science classes they teach the same principals of a chain on a sprocket using circles and strings. You should be able to do something similar with this project. if you set you path to the centerline of the chain the relational geometry is the same. just sub your circles out for gears of the correct pitch you should have workable geometry.
