Gear

A gear or gearwheel, also called a toothed wheel, or cog is a rotating machine part typically used to transmit rotational motion or torque by means of a series of "teeth" that engage with compatible teeth of another gear or other part. The teeth can be integral saliences or cavities machined on the part, or separate pegs inserted into it. In the latter case, the gear is usually called a cogwheel. A cog may be one of those pegs or the whole gear. Two or more meshing gears are called a gear train. The smaller member of a pair of meshing gears is often called pinion. Most commonly, gears and gear trains can be used to trade torque for rotational speed between two axles or other rotating parts or to change the axis of rotation or to invert the sense of rotation. A gear may also be used to transmit linear force or linear motion to a rack, a straight bar with a row of compatible teeth. Gears are among the most common mechanical parts. They come in a great variety of shapes and materials, and are used for many different functions and applications. Diameters may range from a few μm in micromachines, to a few mm in watches and toys to over 10 metres in some mining equipment. Other types of parts that are somewhat similar in shape and function to gears include the sprocket, which is meant to engage with a link chain instead of another gear, and the timing pulley, meant to engage a timing belt. Most gears are round and have equal teeth, designed to operate as smoothly as possible; but there are several applications for non-circular gears, and the Geneva drive has an extremely uneven operation, by design. Gears can be seen as instances of...