MECHANICAL ACTUATOR

**Mechanical Actuator**
A mechanical actuator is utilized to turn a rotary motion into a linear motion. It has a built in gearbox to reduce the speed of the motor and increase the output force of the actuator. All the components for this actuator are all 3d printable and its constructed similar to an actual mechanical actuator used in industry. It utilizes three stages of gear reduction, a dual roller bearings and a acme screw.

**Gear Reduction:**
The actuator has three stages reduction utilizing spur gears to achieve a total ratio of a 10.39:1. (Sorry for the odd ratio, I had an even reduction all figured out but my printer was just a little too small to utilize it so I had to reduce the number of teeth on a couple gears to make it fit.) You will notice that the teeth on the gears are larger on the last stage as the torque increases thru the gears.

Stage #1: .577:1 (15 to 26 tooth, module 1)
Stage #2: .417:1 (15 to 36 tooth, module 1)
Stage #3: .4:1 (12 to 30 tooth, module