Gear Box Design - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories

Designed a manually operated gearbox for a Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory–sponsored project to support a powder transfer process used in additive manufacturing. The system needed to rotate a hopper under load in a controlled manner while preventing back-driving and fitting within defined size and interface constraints. The design used a worm gear transmission housed in a machined enclosure, with gear, shaft, and bearing selections guided by analytical calculations. The gearbox was fabricated and assembled, and performance was evaluated through bench testing to confirm smooth operation and consistent torque transfer under expected loading conditions.