Clock Sculpture
Clock Sculpture
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Introduction to Mechanical Prototyping
April 2022
Introduction to Mechanical Prototyping
April 2022
One of the projects in the class, Introduction to Mechanical Prototyping, involved creating a sculpture with a clockwork unit. Students designed and manufactured mechanical mechanisms, such as cams, cam followers, linkages, etc., to create a moving sculpture. These mechanisms were required to be interconnected and powered by only one motor. For this project, I primarily contributed to the integration, fabrication, and assembly, while prioritizing the iris mechanism and electronics mounting.
The clockwork sculpture is inspired by the TV series, Doctor Who, as depicted with the circular art patterns and the famous telephone box (TARDIS) at the center of the bottom region. It includes planets spinning at different speeds on the top section due to three coaxial shafts powered by a gearbox. The gearbox contains a set of bevel gears that transmit rotational power from the gearbox to the bottom section of the sculpture. The bottom section consists of a belt and pulley system to spin a gear meshed with an inner ring gear, which includes a 3D printed TARDIS sitting upon the ring. The bottom also has another bevel gear system that transfers power perpendicularly and connects to a linkage system that allows the iris mechanism to open and close asynchronously.
For a brief video summary of the project, check this out!
The clockwork power transmission starts off with the motor which was mounted onto the gearbox that was created with lathed shafts, plasma-cut metal plates, resin-printed gears, gears and hardware from stock, and 3D-printed spacers. The gearbox had three stages to achieve three different speeds for the coaxial shafts. At the end of one of the shafts in the gearbox, a resin-printed (45 degrees) bevel gear was attached to it and meshed with another resin-printed bevel gear that was mounted onto a long vertical shaft.
The long, vertical shaft ran down and had both a pulley and another resin-printed bevel gear on it. The pulley is connected to another pulley via a belt that spins a gear that meshes with the spinning platform (a laser-cut acrylic piece that has gear teeth on the inside part of the circle) that goes through the iris mechanisms. The bevel gear on the same shaft spins another bevel gear, which is connected to the iris mechanisms via a shaft. By spinning the shaft, the linkages that are connected to the shaft are able to move and control when the irises close and open.
The mechanism I worked on most within CAD was the iris-linkage mechanism, the one that controlled how/when the irises would open and close in relation to each other. As shown in the pictures to the left, there is a turner piece to which the linkages are connected. The turner piece spins with the shaft (from power transmission via bevel gear), and the links' lengths force the irises' pin to open or close. With the orientation of the irises, this meant that as the left iris opened, the right iris closed, and vice versa. I had to manipulate the CAD and determine the lengths of the linkages that were necessary for the distance between the irises, while another team member modeled the irises themselves.
I further worked on the manufacturing and assembly of the main gearbox with the coaxial shafts, along with the electronic portion of the box (soldering the PCB board to the motor and power switch).
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