Scavenger Hunt: Wolf School GearDescriptionRegion(s)Kaer MorhenLocation(s)BastionOld signal towerRuined WatchtowerSuggested Level14Reward(s)Wolven gear diagramsAdditional InformationTypeTreasure huntEnemiesEryniasWraithsMap(s)ArmorSteel swordSilver swordScavenger Hunt: Wolf School Gear is a treasure hunt in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and pertains to finding the diagrams for Wolf School Gear, which was added on as a DLC.
Crack Gear Generator 3
You can then examine the portal area on the ground level if you wish, though you need the polished crystal, so head back the way you entered the tower but this time climb through the crack in the wall on the right (if facing the exit). Carefully walk through here and climb up onto the scaffolding on the outside of the tower and near the end, look up to see the crystal on a ledge to grab it. Head back and interact with the mechanism to add it, then hit it with Aard to charge it. Do not try to jump through the portal yet though, as it's not stable enough (indicated by it flickering). You'll need to hit the other mechanism opposite the one you just charged up and that'll stabilize the portal. Once done, jump through it and it'll spit you out in a cave. As you near the cave exit a wraith will spawn here, so kill it off and then loot the skeleton here for the armor, boots, gauntlets, and trousers diagrams as well as some notes. Be careful at the cave exit, as there are stone platforms to safely drop to, but it is also easy to accidentaly slide into death even when targeting them properly.
The use of bulk metallic glasses (BMGs) as the flexspline in strain wave gears (SWGs), also known as harmonic drives, is presented. SWGs are unique, ultra-precision gearboxes that function through the elastic flexing of a thin-walled cup, called a flexspline. The current research demonstrates that BMGs can be cast at extremely low cost relative to machining and can be implemented into SWGs as an alternative to steel. This approach may significantly reduce the cost of SWGs, enabling lower-cost robotics. The attractive properties of BMGs, such as hardness, elastic limit and yield strength, may also be suitable for extreme environment applications in spacecraft.
The operation of a steel SWG is shown in Fig. 1. Although SWGs can be constructed using a variety of geometries, the three components of a standard cup-type SWG are shown disassembled in Fig. 1a, for a CSF-8 purchased from Harmonic Drive Systems, Inc., Tokyo, Japan. They are (1) a stiff outer spline, also called a circular spline, with internal gear teeth, (2) a thin-walled flexspline with external teeth numbering two less than the outer spline, and (3) an elliptical wave generator with steel ball bearings confined in an elliptical race by a steel band. When assembled, the wave generator forces the wall of the flexspline to expand and engage the teeth of the outer spline. The output torque is generally provided by the base of the flexspline while the outer spline stays fixed. The typical operation of a SWG is shown schematically in Fig. 1c. The wave generator forces the teeth on the flexspline to engage the outer spline and when the wave generator is rotated, the flexspline elastically deforms to maintain contact. After a 180 degree rotation, the flexpline has moved by one tooth relative to the outer spline. After a full rotation, the flexspline and the outer spline have been offset by two teeth. Unlike spur and planetary gears, the reduction ratio of a SWG is not a function of the size of the gears, but rather by the number of teeth. The reduction ratio, i, which is defined as the ratio of the input speed to the output speed is:
(a) A disassembled SWG showing the three components: an outer spline, a wave generator, and a flexspline. (b) An assembled CSF-8 flexspline from Harmonic Drive, LLC. (c) A schematic showing the operation of a SWG where each 180 revolution of the wave generator moves the flexspline by one tooth. (d) A schematic of a load torque versus number of cycles plot for a SWG showing the various failure mechanisms and how to design for them.
In addition to wire-EDM for the fabrication of the gear teeth, we also directly cast the gear teeth against a mold that had previously been made using wire-EDM, shown in Fig. 2e for Zr35Ti20Cu8.25Be26.75. Using both techniques, we were successful at fabricating BMG flexsplines with very similar dimensions to standard steel flexsplines (the measured dimensions are shown in Table 2). Figure 2f shows the top and bottom of the first BMG flexspline prototype compared directly to the steel version. After manufacturing, the flexsplines were integrated into a CSF-8 SWG using the standard steel outer spline and wave generator. Figure 2g shows the BMG flexspline from Fig. 2f installed in the SWG. A video showing the operation of this flexspline in the SWG is shown in the Supplementary Material. Figure 2(h,i) shows differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) traces and X-ray diffraction (XRD) traces for three BMG flexsplines after manufacturing. The alloy Zr35Ti30Cu8.25Be26.75 (GHDT), is known for its high toughness and large thermoplastic forming region (which can be seen in the DSC image as the distance between the arrows indicating the glass transition temperature and the crystallization temperature). The Ti-based BMG (Ti40Zr20Cu10Be30) and the Zr-based BMG (Zr44Ti11Cu10Ni10Be25, LM1b)21 have smaller thermoplastic forming regions but are both shown to be mostly amorphous. Figure 2i shows XRD traces from flexsplines made from all three BMGs, showing mostly amorphous microstructures. The LM1b flexsplines are shown later in the text and were commercially cast, showing only small evidence of partial crystallization.
In addition to the CSF-8 BMG flexsplines that were cast, shown in Fig. 4(a,b), several other alloys were also manufactured into these flexsplines to investigate the castability and properties of different BMG alloys. Figure 4i shows the four different BMGs that were commercially cast and their properties appear in Table 1. Two well-known non-Be alloys were cast into the flexspline, Vitreloy 106 (Zr57Nb5Cu15.4Ni12.6Al10) and Vitreloy 105 (Zr52.5Ti5Cu17.9Ni14.6Al10). Both alloys formed an amorphous part but their higher melting point and higher viscosity produced a lower quality casting. The BMG GHDT, which was used for the prototypes shown in Figs 2 and 3, was also cast into a flexspline to compare the commercial casting process with the prototype made at JPL using lab-grade material. Lastly, the alloy LM1b was used predominantly for testing and characterization of the casting process. Figure 4(j,k) shows a selection of optical micrographs from both machined steel and cast BMG flexsplines. A Keynance large depth-of-field microscope was used to perform both optical imaging and profilometry on the surface and the gear teeth. Figure 4j shows a comparison between the CSG-50 flexspline cast from BMG and machined from steel. The teeth have virtually the same profile but the surface of the BMG has a random texture compared to the steel, which exhibits horizontal machining lines. The tips of the teeth in the BMG alloy is rounder than the steel, due to the high viscosity of the BMG during casting. Figure 4k shows the smaller CSF-8 flexspline in steel, a BMG prototype that was created using wire EDM and two BMG cast parts. Due to the smaller feature size compared to the larger part, the replication of the gear teeth is not quite as good. The teeth are slightly rounder and the surface is rougher. The BMG sample that was cut using wire EDM shows a very rough surface on the gear teeth as compared to the cast samples, indicating that casting provides a better finish, and likely, improved wear performance. Measurements of cast BMG gears are shown in Table 3.
This research demonstrates the feasibility of using BMGs as flexsplines in SWGs, which has the potential to be a major disruption in the way that these unique gears are used for both terrestrial and space applications. This work shows that BMGs, while generally brittle, have the strength and elastic strain limit to transmit torque when used as a flexspline. This was done by prototyping a BMG flexspline and implementing it into a NASA JPL robot, where it operated for a short number of cycles without failure. We also successfully fabricated approximately 60 BMG flexsplines commercially from four different alloys. BMG flexsplines were fabricated from Ti-based alloys with 40% lower mass than steel but with higher hardness. Future work will involve improving the casting procedure so that full life testing and efficiency can be measured on the BMG flexsplines and a cost/benefit analyses can be performed. Due to the high precision of the mating between the steel flexspline and the outer spline, the tolerances must be extremely tight for life testing. The BMG parts, while very close, are not exact replicas of machined steel versions, which prevents most testing other than low-cycle bench-testing. In addition to improving the casting tolerances, future work will explore manufacturing the outer spline and the wave generator using BMGs. Cold operation favors using materials with the same coefficient of thermal expansion and the same properties, which motivates making the entire SWG of BMG. The challenge of producing commercially viable strain wave gears using BMGs will most likely result from the material properties of the BMG. We have shown here that the commercial casting does somewhat degrade the properties of the BMG as compared to nominal samples prepared in the laboratory. Creating new flexspline designs specifically to accommodate the properties and casting limitations of BMGs will be an important step towards improving the performance. The largest unknown trade in the use of BMG flexsplines is in the BMG alloy selection. In the current paper, we have looked only at monolithic BMGs however, ultra-tough BMG matrix composites have also previously been developed. Since the performance of a strain wave gear is a competition between abrasive wear and the fatigue of the flexspline, it is still unknown if BMG alloys should be designed for toughness or wear resistance. Further work is required in this area. Overall, however, this work shows that BMGs are a promising material for use in SWGs and may have the potential to drastically reduce their cost, while not sacrificing performance. 2ff7e9595c
Comments