Society of Robots - Robot Forum

Mechanics and Construction => Mechanics and Construction => Topic started by: S. Karim on June 20, 2007, 03:52:56 PM

Title: Do you trust servos with plastic gears?
Post by: S. Karim on June 20, 2007, 03:52:56 PM

Some plastic gear servo's with over 100 torque end up being very cheap, 15-20 bucks. Do you trust them? Would you trust them for robotic arms or legs applications?

Title: Re: Do you trust servos with plastic gears?
Post by: Admin on June 20, 2007, 05:40:07 PM

http://www.societyofrobots.com/actuators_servos.shtml#gears

Ive used probably 50 servos in the last 5 years, and only once did a gear crack. It was a plastic gear on a $13 Futaba s3110 microservo that I told to go back and forth a lot.

However Ive had the plastic output shafts crack on me probably 5 or so times (due to poor design and very rough treatment). I like metal output shafts much more for this reason.

You might also be interested in this post on servo lifetimes:
http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=1300.0

Title: Re: Do you trust servos with plastic gears?
Post by: S. Karim on June 20, 2007, 06:50:24 PM

Is there any different between 51 oz/in torque with nylon gears and 51 oz/in torque with karbonite gears?

Title: Re: Do you trust servos with plastic gears?
Post by: ed1380 on June 20, 2007, 06:56:17 PM

the gears are stronger and should last longer

Title: Re: Do you trust servos with plastic gears?
Post by: Kohanbash on June 20, 2007, 07:36:12 PM

Hi
I have had many nylon gears strip and wear out when exposed to dirt and sand in outdoor mobile robots.