Automated construction of gear racks, spur gears and helical gears using Matlab & STL files for rapid manufacturing

Since rapid manufacturing (RM) technologies such as selective laser sintering (SLS) are on the edge to be used for the fabrication of fully functional components or even complete technical devices, we have to adapt the way we think of designing and assembling printable parts. RM makes it possible to realize complex geometrical structures with ease in small amounts at low cost. And it is possible to customize the geometry of e.g. a robot and simply print it according to the desired specifications. To make those technical possibilities available for any developer - no matter what technical background one has, from children to engineers, from hobby to professional use - it is important to automate basic design steps. In this paper we present a concept for the automated construction of gear boxes and our first step for achieving this goal: design algorithms for gear racks, spur gears and helical gears with internal and external involute toothing implemented in Matlab. The geometrical and mathematical description, the algorithms' concept and the creation of the STL files is explained. The gear wheels are designed to be compatible with all gear wheels according to ISO 2771.