The systems engineer can use his or her own experience to guess what is the most adequate gear ratio according to existing motor source or available gear train. Later in the product development cycle, the designer can make changes and adjust the dependence parameter and other components of the actuator so the desired load profile and performance are still met. In general this is a highly iterative process of many steps.
As an alternative we have produced a specialized calculator that takes typical top level requirements such as the available power, voltage, part envelope, mission time, torque, and derives more specific gear train and motor requirements that are generally useful for project allocation and in the detailed design phases specifications.
In its first version, the Opti-Mizer(TM) offers simple numeric data input. In the future releases, features such as graphical load profile definition will be available as input requirement data and scrollable case study storage are expected to be introduced too. Another fact to keep in mind when using the Opti-Mizer(TM) as of this initial release is that the total actuator efficiency should be used as input parameter.
The Opti-Mizer(TM) is now available for some of the latest iPhone models and can be downloaded for free at the Apple Ap Store so anyone interested can benefit in the process of designing actuators.
In the near future, Opti-mizer(TM) will also implement an optional algorithm that will calculate the optimal gear ratio with respect to the drives RMS (root means square average) torque. For the time being, we recommend that the designer use a similar technique, where calculating the weighed average of all the critical accelerated conditions present in the load profile.
For questions or suggestions, please, send mail to [email protected]