In: Physics
how does the prescence of an idler gear affect the relationship between a driver gear and a driven gear in a gear train?
The gear that is closest to the motor is called a driver gear. The gear that receives the drive from it is called a follower gear. On the diagram below the driver and follower gear are marked green and red respectively.
Almost every mechanism has its driver and follower gear. In every pair of meshed gears there is a driver gear and a follower gear. It should be sufficient to remember that the driver gear is the one the drive is transferred from, and the follower gear is the one the drive is transferred to.
As you may have noticed, on the diagram above axles are marked with the same colours as the gears. That is because we can talk about axles in the same manner in which we have just described the gears. In fact, many mechanisms have covered or hidden gears but clearly visible axles, so this approach is often more convenient. In this case we call the axle with the driver gear (green) an input axle, and the axle with the follower gear (red) an output axle. That