planetary reduction drive

A decrease drive is a mechanical device to shift rotational velocity. A planetary decrease drive is a small scale edition using ball bearings in an epicyclic arrangement instead of toothed gears.

Reduction drives are found in engines of all types to increase the amount of torque per revolution of a shaft: the gearbox of any car is a ubiquitous exemplory case of a reduction drive. Common home uses are washing machines, meals blenders and window-winders. Reduction drives are also utilized to decrease the rotational acceleration of an insight shaft to a proper output speed. Decrease drives can be a gear train design or belt driven.

Planetary reduction drives are typically attached between the shaft of the variable capacitor and the planetary gearbox tuning knob of any kind of radio, to allow fine adjustments of the tuning capacitor with easy actions of the knob. Planetary drives are used in this situation in order to avoid “backlash”, which makes tuning easier. If the capacitor drive offers backlash, when one attempts to listen in a station, the tuning knob will feel sloppy and it will be hard to execute small adjustments. Gear-drives could be made to have no backlash by using split gears and springtime tension but the shaft bearings have to be very precise.