VENEZUELA, RHEA Y.

BSIENG 2A

A shaft is a rotating machine element, usually circular in cross section, which is used to
transmit power from one part to another, or from a machine which produces power to a machine
which absorbs power. Shafts may be solid or hollow depending upon the application. It can be of
two types, either transmission shafts or machine shafts. The various members such as pulleys
and gears are mounted on it.

The main function of propeller shaft is to connect two mechanical elements or

components (i.e one is driving element and another is driven element. We can transmit
torque/turning moment and power from one component to another which are apart at some
distance). Shafts are used to support transmission element like gears, pully, and socket.

In selecting a specific shaft characteristic that would be used in a certain machine, I think
one of its important characteristics is size. I select this kind of shaft characteristic because I
believe, the size shaft varies in the gear that will be use in the machine. The next thing that I will
consider is the materials being used in making the shafts. The ferrous, non-ferrous and non-
metals can be used as shaft material depending on the application. For example, when the
machine you are trying to use will be submerge in a water, therefore the shaft that you will use
are those of stainless steel to avoid it from getting rusty. Aside from the aforementioned above,
I guess, design can be considered as one of the characteristics of a shaft that would be used in a
certain machine. The design I am trying to pertain is a design in terms of its strength and stiffness
of the shaft.

There are two different classes of shafts: (1) Transmission Shaft (2) Machine Shaft.
Transmission shaft is used to transmit power to machine from source. Moreover, counter shaft,
line shaft, over head shaft and all kind of factory are types of transmission shaft. On the other
hand, machine shaft is working as a machine part. In the other way, this shaft also called a
machine part that’s why it is called as machine shaft and the very good example for this is, crank
shaft.