Slider Crank Mechanism Animation
Slider crank mechanism
Slider crank mechanism is used for converting rotary motion to linear motion. Rotary motion input is applied at the crank wheel shaft and the output linear motion is available at the slider.
Slider crank mechanism works like the reciprocating piston and cylinder mechanism. Instead of the piston there is a slider with suitable guide way. Slider reciprocates along the guide way without buckling. Generally the crank is fabricated as an integral part of a wheel on which a small crank rod protrudes out. The wheel is well balanced so that it rotates without wobbling when driven by the prime mover with the load. One end of the connecting rod is fixed to the crank rod and the other end to the slider. The wheel is provided with a shaft attached to the housing with bearings in such a way that the shaft does not protrude out of the wheel on the crank rod side. This is done to ensure that the connecting rod moves freely without any hindrance. The wheel may have grooves like a pulley through which input rotary motion is applied via belt or the wheel can be directly connected to the prime mover with suitable couplings. The distance between the center of the wheel and the center of the crank pin is the radius of gyration at which the crank pin will be moving.
Slider travels from front end to the rear end for every half revolution and it starts moving from rear end to front end for the next half revolution. In this way the slider reciprocates in both directions for every revolution. Maximum travel of the slider will be equal to two times the radius of the crank wheel measured from center of the wheel to center of the crank pin. It must be noted that linear displacement produced by the slider will not be linearly proportional to the angular displacement made by the wheel.
Slider crank mechanism is used converting rotary to linear motion. Slider crank mechanism can also be used for linear to rotary motion conversion by applying the input to the slider and output rotary motion is obtained from the wheel shaft.