topic Re: Flex Shaft in Inventor in Inventor Forum

Flex Shaft in Inventor

Anonymous — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 13:50:45 GMT

Hey there, is there a way to build and simulate a flexible shaft in Inventor? Like the kind you would use for making jewelry?

I guess I'm trying to figure out if you can simulate a cylinder that rotates through its length even if it has a bend in it so that the rotational motion at one end is correlated to the rotation at the other end. Any resources or tutorials would be a real help.

I have used inventor in the past for simple sims and thought there might be a simple way to achieve this but don't know what's out there.

Thanks for any help in advance

Re: Flex Shaft in Inventor

JDMather — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 13:59:32 GMT

Animate Parameter?

Can you Attach the *.ipt file of your attempt here?

Can you provide images of something similar that already exists in the real world?

Re: Flex Shaft in Inventor

swalton — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 15:15:09 GMT

I assume you are looking at products like this: https://www.machinedesign.com/motors-drives/article/21833481/flexible-rotary-shaft-operation-uses-and-advances

What question are you trying to answer with your simulation? Minimum bend radius of the shaft?, Maximum torque the shaft can carry?, Stress in the drive coil?

Define what you want to know and the forum experts may be able to offer suggestions on how to build your simulation.