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Troubleshooting infrequent intermittent problems can be one of the most frustrating engineering areas. It is also a great opportunity to use system knowledge and all of your senses and sleuthing abilities.
It was recently announced that the planet Mars has at least one thing in common with planet Earth: all good things come to an end. In this case, the good thing is the recently announced and documented (Feb. 12) demise of the Mars rover Opportunity.
Cylindrical gear design can be divided into three steps. In the first step, rough gear pair dimensions such as center distance and face width are being estimated. Center distance and face width are directly linked to the available space (housing dimensions) and influence the overall size, weight and cost of the gears.
Power density is a key factor in gear design. Increasing the power density enables engineers to use smaller gears for their applications which lead to smaller and lighter gear boxes. The benefit for example for the automotive industry is less moving load in the vehicles and therefor a reduction of fuel consumption and subsequently a reduction of CO2 emission. The limiting factor for the increase in power density of gears is the material strength in regard to the critical failure mode.