SolidWorks Assembly Work

In our SolidWorks assembly work pages, which can support your machine technology courses, we’ve dedicated this article to the vehicle transmission system and its detail drawings.

A working SolidWorks file has been included to view and demonstrate the transmission system in 3D — suitable for design, construction, and machine elements courses.

What Is a Transmission System:

trans: Latin for transfer, carry, convey
mission: combination of words meaning task

Transmission: means a motion transfer-carrying mechanism. To briefly define the transmission system: it is the system that regulates, in quantity and quality, the motion taken from the power source (the engine).

Due to their structure, internal combustion engines are not suitable for directly driving a vehicle. To give a simple example, the engine shaft may be turning at 3000 rpm, but the wheels don’t need to spin at 3000 rpm. For this reason, vehicles use a transmission system to meet the need for handling loads under different conditions and to provide the necessary matching in power transfer between the engine and the vehicle.

Functions of the Transmission System:

The functions of transmission systems are to enable the transition from a standstill to motion, provide torque and rotational speed conversion, adjust wheel speed variables during turns, enable forward and reverse motion, and keep the power unit’s operation within the appropriate zone of its operating curve, in line with fuel economy and exhaust emissions.

The transmission system essentially takes the rotary motion produced by the engine from the engine’s output shaft, then processes and regulates it, first through the gearbox/transmission. The gearbox primarily determines the direction of wheel rotation. The gearbox also adjusts the number of wheel rotations per unit of time, thereby regulating the vehicle’s (fast-slow) speed.

After this stage, transmission systems are further regulated in the differential gear group, which allows the equal rpm received by the two wheels of the vehicle’s active/drive wheel set to be used independently. The differential gear group is located exactly in the middle of the active wheel pair, and as it distributes the rpm coming from the gearbox to both wheels, it transmits the rpm to each wheel in appropriate ratios — because, in turns, the wheel closer to the turn’s center needs to rotate less (needs to travel less distance), while the wheel farther from the turn’s center needs to travel a longer distance. If this were not provided, both wheels would rotate at equal speed, which would make the vehicle prone to skidding in turns depending on its speed.

Components of the Transmission System

gearbox: the mechanical or hydraulic clutch that separates the engine from the gearbox, allows the vehicle’s speed range to be wider than the engine’s speed range, and provides load matching.

Differential: allows the gearbox and, during turns, the inner and outer wheels to rotate at different speeds appropriate to their conditions.

Today, vehicles generally use mechanical and automatic hydraulic systems as their transmission system.

SolidWorks solid modeling assembly drawing
Download the transmission system

transmission system assembly solid modeling download