In this exercise, you will be modeling some dead axle rollers. To spin things, whether it be rollers, wheels, or even arms, two types of axles can be utilized: "live" and "dead" axles.
Live and Dead Axle Rollers
You'll learn more about live and dead axle design in Stage 2, but for now, all you need know is that live axle means we power the shaft to spin our mechanism, whereas with dead axle, we directly power the spinning component.
For live axle, the shaft spins on fixed bearings, while for dead axle, the bearings are on the spinning component. Take a look at the visual below to better understand.
Live vs Dead Axle Rollers
This exercise introduces you to the use of the Configurable Rollers Document. The assembly instruction slides have you copy this link to insert the rollers.
Part Studio Instructions
Navigate to the "Exercise #2 Part Studio" tab in your copied document and follow the instructions in the slides to complete the part studio for this exercise.
Assembly Instructions
Next, navigate to the "Exercise #2 Assembly" tab in your copied document and follow the instructions in the slides to complete this exercise.
Verification
Make sure to have you and/or a more experienced member/mentor of your team review your CAD! Your assembly should have 17 instances.
Minimizing Unique Part Count
You may have noticed that the 3rd roller has a 24T pulley on both ends despite there only being a belt connected to one end.
While the configurable roller does allow you to choose no pulley for the end with no belt, it can be advantageous to still keep the pulley in situations like this to reduce the number of unique parts.
By doing so, all three rollers are identical, making part tracking and spare parts easier.