Hi-ratio evoloid planetary gear

thingiverse

One lazy afternoon I stumbled upon a fascinating article detailing a revolutionary planetary gear system design recently patented for achieving high-ratio translations of 24:1, 18:1, and 12:1 with just three planet gears. This breakthrough is remarkable since previously, three-planet gear systems were limited to reductions up to a ratio of 9. Excited by the new possibilities this innovative design offers, I immediately began modeling it in detail. The PG's design is quite complex, relying on profile shifting and helical gearing techniques, as well as employing a sun gear with only one tooth. However, my OpenSCAD code proved surprisingly straightforward. It's essentially a one-liner, excluding the necessary components for mounting, axes, carrier, and other supporting features. Underneath its surface, this design heavily leverages my long-established *gears.scad* library, which boasts built-in support for profile-shifted gears - reportedly the only library on the web to address this feature. If you're interested in learning more about how the library works, its design principles, and usage examples, please refer to my introductory post: [Cut your own gears with profile shift](https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:636119). I'm eager to see what creations you'll come up with!