Answers.Body: <blockquote>
    <p>Do I have to worry about breaking any gears due to excessive torque?</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>LEGO Gears are one of the strongest LEGO components. When you apply great amounts of torque, they may slip or grind, but never <em>break</em>.</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Do I have to worry about gears slipping (skipping teeth) due to high
    torque?</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>If you apply high amounts of torque, your gears will slip. This happens even with moderately high amounts. They may also slide down the axle and grind the side of the other gear, or the axle.</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>Has anyone performed experimental (destructive) tests to quantify the
    maximum torque these gears can withstand? Order of magnitude is OK -
    will the gears break at 1 N.cm, 10 N.cm, 100 N.cm, ... ?</p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Your gears will withstand the torque quite well - it's probably other components, like the axles and beams, that will give way first. Don't worry about breaking the gears - the worst situation might be that an axle or two might bend.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-10-16T05:52:46.337Z
Answers.Text: Actually it is quite possible to break gears when using very high gearing ratios. See http://www.firstroboticscanada.org/main/wp-content/uploads/LEGO-Gears.pdf . It gives some circumstances in which the author has broken gears, though it doesn't include any actual torque measurements.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Li-aung Yip
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-10-16T11:17:36.323Z
Answers.Text: There are more elements to breaking gears than torque, like pressure and speed.
Answers.UserDisplayName: Timtech
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2013-10-15T21:22:54.883Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2013-10-15T21:22:54.883Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: Timtech
Answers.Body: <p>Simply put, they won't break. I've put LEGO gears through everything I could and they were fine. That includes spinning an 8-tooth gear at around 80,000 RPM (sustained for only a second or two) via a flywheel-based stored-energy device. I've driven a 9lb vehicle with about 40 gears in the drivetrain, and none broke.</p>
  
  <p>Slipping teeth is rather common. As a guide, if you sandwich spur gears between two beams or bricks with holes, you're not going to grind them. I would trust that for 100Ncm or more. If you are going to put the structural beams further away from the gears, the torque limit reduces. You can increase it by adding bushes (to stop gears from sliding along axles) or by adding short beams that span two axles - this stops the axles from bending and disengaging the gears.</p>
  
Answers.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Answers.CreationDate: 2016-04-02T12:19:20.103Z
Answers.LastActivityDate: 2016-04-02T12:19:20.103Z
Answers.UserDisplayName: TheMindGarage
Body: <p>I am using Lego in the classroom to introduce students to geared machines.</p>
  
  <p>As part of this I am asking them to design a winch, using a small 1.5V DC motor and a collection of the common Lego gears, i.e. the 8, 16, 24 and 40-tooth spur gears, and the special worm gear.</p>
  
  <p>Based on rough back-of-the-envelope calculations, I will require about 5 N.cm of torque at the winch drum.</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><p>Do I have to worry about breaking any gears due to excessive torque?</p></li>
  <li><p>Do I have to worry about gears slipping (skipping teeth) due to high torque?</p></li>
  <li><p>Has anyone performed experimental (destructive) tests to quantify the
  maximum torque these gears can withstand? Order of magnitude is OK - will the gears break at 1 N.cm, 10 N.cm, 100 N.cm, ... ?</p></li>
  </ul>
  
Comments.ContentLicense: CC BY-SA 3.0
Comments.CreationDate: 2013-10-14T11:18:31.250Z
Comments.Text: One thing to bare in mind is that some LEGO gears exist in several variants, each of which may have different torque limits. The following tutorial cites some of these differences: http://sariel.pl/2009/09/gears-tutorial/
Comments.UserDisplayName: Kramii
Tags: <technic><gears>
Title: What are the torque limits of gears?
UserDisplayName: Li-aung Yip
ThreadText: # What are the torque limits of gears?
  
  (Asked by: username_0 on 2013-10-14)
  
  I am using Lego in the classroom to introduce students to geared machines.
  
  As part of this I am asking them to design a winch, using a small 1.5V DC motor and a collection of the common Lego gears, i.e. the 8, 16, 24 and 40-tooth spur gears, and the special worm gear.
  
  Based on rough back-of-the-envelope calculations, I will require about 5 N.cm of torque at the winch drum.
  
  * Do I have to worry about breaking any gears due to excessive torque?
  * Do I have to worry about gears slipping (skipping teeth) due to high torque?
  * Has anyone performed experimental (destructive) tests to quantify the
    maximum torque these gears can withstand? Order of magnitude is OK - will the gears break at 1 N.cm, 10 N.cm, 100 N.cm, ... ?
  
  **Tags:** technic, gears
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_1**: One thing to bare in mind is that some LEGO gears exist in several variants, each of which may have different torque limits. The following tutorial cites some of these differences: http://sariel.pl/2009/09/gears-tutorial/  
  
  ---
  
  ## 2 answers
  
  ### Answer by username_2 on 2013-10-15. Score: 3
  
  > Do I have to worry about breaking any gears due to excessive torque?
  
  LEGO Gears are one of the strongest LEGO components. When you apply great amounts of torque, they may slip or grind, but never *break*.
  
  > Do I have to worry about gears slipping (skipping teeth) due to high
  > torque?
  
  If you apply high amounts of torque, your gears will slip. This happens even with moderately high amounts. They may also slide down the axle and grind the side of the other gear, or the axle.
  
  > Has anyone performed experimental (destructive) tests to quantify the
  > maximum torque these gears can withstand? Order of magnitude is OK -
  > will the gears break at 1 N.cm, 10 N.cm, 100 N.cm, ... ?
  
  Your gears will withstand the torque quite well - it's probably other components, like the axles and beams, that will give way first. Don't worry about breaking the gears - the worst situation might be that an axle or two might bend.
  
  > **Comments:**
  > **username_0**: Actually it is quite possible to break gears when using very high gearing ratios. See http://www.firstroboticscanada.org/main/wp-content/uploads/LEGO-Gears.pdf . It gives some circumstances in which the author has broken gears, though it doesn't include any actual torque measurements.  
  > **username_2**: There are more elements to breaking gears than torque, like pressure and speed.  
  
  ---
  
  ### Answer by username_3 on 2016-04-02. Score: 0
  
  Simply put, they won't break. I've put LEGO gears through everything I could and they were fine. That includes spinning an 8-tooth gear at around 80,000 RPM (sustained for only a second or two) via a flywheel-based stored-energy device. I've driven a 9lb vehicle with about 40 gears in the drivetrain, and none broke.
  
  Slipping teeth is rather common. As a guide, if you sandwich spur gears between two beams or bricks with holes, you're not going to grind them. I would trust that for 100Ncm or more. If you are going to put the structural beams further away from the gears, the torque limit reduces. You can increase it by adding bushes (to stop gears from sliding along axles) or by adding short beams that span two axles - this stops the axles from bending and disengaging the gears.
  
  
  ---
  
  