Northeastern University

College of Engineering

Department of Mechanical, Industrial & Manufacturing Engineering

Connection Design Report

Submitted by Luke Faillaci

Tuong Thai
Fletcher Cavanagh

Date Submitted August 2nd, 2022

Instructor Yustianto Tjiptowidjojo

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INTRODUCTION

COMPONENTS
FULL SYSTEM
MANUAL INPUT SHAFT
HAND LEVER:
POMMEL
POWER SCREW
JACK CUP
PEDESTAL

ANALYSIS
APPLIED LOADS, MOMENTS, AND TORQUES
CRITICAL CONNECTIONS
MOTOR TO HOUSING CONNECTION
HOUSING TO PLATE CONNECTION

APPENDIX

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Introduction
For this analysis we are focusing on worm jacks. This type of jack uses a driveshaft
which turns a worm gear connected to a worm screw with a threaded inner diameter
delivering force to a drive screw. The report consists of weld connection static and
fatigue analysis. The design and selection of materials takes into account that infinite
life is desirable for each component of the screw jack.

Components
This section serves to provide a description of each component in the design, and to
explain its usage among parts of the system.

Full system

Figure 1 below displays the jackscrew device fully assembled. The large threaded rod
present in the center of the figure is the power screw, its purpose being to translate
angular motion into linear motion from a motorized or manual input. The gray cylinder
with a square base is the pedestal supporting the power screw and distributing the
load down into the floor. The shaft running out of the circular cut in the pedestal is the
manual input shaft, driven by the user via the hand lever, which is located
perpendicular to the input shaft. On the end of the hand lever are two pommels, which
thread on to the end of the hand lever. This allows for the lever to be removed when the
jack is motorized, preventing any hazard from forming with the fast-spinning hand
lever.

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 Figure 1: Fully Assembled Jackscrew

Manual Input Shaft

The manual input shaft is what allows the user to apply force directly to the power
transmission of the device. The shaft is directly connected to the worm gear, driving
the worm screw which creates the linear motion of the power screw.

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 Figure 2: Manual Input Shaft

Hand Lever:

The hand lever is the component of the device that allows for manual user input to
yield linear motion of the power screw. For the purpose of analysis, it is modeled to be
fixed to the end of the input shaft, at its own end.

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 Figure 3: Hand Lever without pommels

Pommel

The pommel acts as a removable end-cap for the hand lever. The hand lever was
designed to be removable to avoid it hitting the user or other components. Considering
that no direct force is applied to the pommel, and it connects to the hand lever via
threads, its analysis is reserved for further discussion.

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 Figure 4: Hand Lever with Pommels

Power Screw

The power screw is the critical component of the device, with its purpose being to
translate angular motion into linear motion via the square threads wrapping around the
side. The power screw is made of AISI 1010 CD steel, with a yield strength of 300 MPa
and tensile strength of 370 MPa. From Figure 5, one can see the keyed shaft at the top
of the power screw, its purpose being to make the connection between the jack cup
and the power screw.

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 Figure 5: Power Screw

Jack Cup

The jack cup is the component of the system responsible for making direct contact
with the load. It was designed to have a small diameter equal to the minimum diameter
of the power screw, allowing for a flush connection between the power screw and jack
cup. The contact surface on the power screw has a diameter equal to 1.25 times its
small diameter. This is to prevent catastrophic failure in the form of the load tipping
over and off the system.

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 Figure 6: Jack Cup

Pedestal

This is the base and frame of the system. The geometry shown in Figure 7 below is
relatively arbitrary. The size of the housing will change to fit all transmission
components once those components have been determined and analyzed. The
cylindrical component is subject to change as well, but its general shape will hold true.
Its purpose is to support the load form the worm screw and its respective connections,
and distribute through the pedestal to the floor

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 Figure 7: Pedestal

Analysis

Applied Loads, Moments, and Torques

There were only two forces considered in the analysis of our power screw
design. Modeling the max supported load of the device to be 60 kN, this force was
applied vertically, on the center of the contacting face of the jack cup. The other force
considered was the manual input force from the user, referred to as Fuser in the
following analysis. From research, it has shown that the average male’s push force
while standing is approximately 200 N. Applying a safety factor of 1.25 to this, further
calculations consider the max manual input force to be 250 N.

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Critical Connections

From reviewing the design, the team concluded that there were three critical
connections to analyze. One was the manual level to the input shaft. For the analysis,
this will be modeled as a cylinder welded to a wall of the same material. Another critical
connection analyzed will be the motors connection to the housing, modeled as a
square plate with four bolts securing it to the housing. The last critical connection to
consider is the housing, which will be fixed to the flat base by a fillet weld around its
perimeter. The following sections will determine the ideal weld sizes and materials
given previously discussed loading conditions.

Motor to Housing Connection

To analyze the motor’s connection to the housing, the motor frame was taken to be
AISI 1006 HR steel, with a yield strength of 170 MPa and a modulus of 207 GPa. The
pedestal material was also chosen earlier to be AISI 1006 HR steel. The motor frame
was modeled as a plate with four through-holes at the corners for a bolt connection.
The housing features four threaded holes to fit the bolts used in fastening the motor.
The motor will generate a shear force on the bolts from its output torque, Tm . Since
there is no external force applied, the only stress in the bolts to consider is a direct
bending stress from Tm . The free body diagram below displays the stresses acting on
the bolt.

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Choosing the screws to be ¼-20 UNC grade 1 bolts of arbitrary length, their yield and
ultimate strengths were found to be 36 and 60 ksi respectively. The figure below shows
the MATLAB script used to perform the analysis.

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Modeling the motor torque to be 5 kip*in, the safety factor against static failure was
found to be 6.0, with a maximum stress of 3.0 ksi. Fatigue failure analysis was
performed as well, assuming room temperature operating conditions. The safety factor
against fatigue failure for infinite life was calculated as 8.18, with the load modeled as a
zero-to-max cyclic torque. The figure below shows the MATLAB script used to perform
fatigue analysis.

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Housing to Plate Connection

To analyze the weld connecting the gearbox and motor housing to the baseplate we
looked at the force applied to the worm gear by the final gear in the gearbox system.
The following figure shows the direct shear and indirect shear forces from the moment
created by the force on the gear located at the edge of the housing.

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Static failure analysis:

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Fatigue failure analysis:

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Appendix
MATLAB Code for Bolt Analysis.
clear
clc
close all

%Bolt Analysis Motor Connection

%member properties
E_m = 207*10^3; %Modulus of Elasticity, MPa
S_y_m = 24; %yield strength of 1006 HR, ksi
S_ut_prime_m = 43; %tensile strength of AISI 1006 HR , ksi

%bolt properties (1/2-13 UNC SAE grade 1)

Sp = 33; %proof strength SAE grade 1

%Centroid
x_c = 6; y_c = 6; %Centroid of bolt geometry
r = (x_c^2 + y_c^2)^.5; % Radius for each bolt (Square)

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%Force Calculations
Tm = 2; %Motor torque lbf*in
F1_2p = Tm*r/(4*r^2) %Shear force from motor torque Tm , kip
Tau_p = F1_2p/A

ns = S_y/(2*Tau_p) %safety factor against static failure

%Fatigue Failure , zero to max cyclic loading

Tau_a = Tau_p/2;
Tau_m = Tau_a; %Shear stress mean and amplitude

S_ut = S_ut_p; %operating temperature

nf = (Tau_a/S_se + Tau_m/S_su)^-1 %safety factor for infinite life

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