The Basic Science of Axles, Upgrades and Benefits of Custom Made Axles

Do you know you deal with the mechanism of axles and wheels every day? Whether it is a shopping trolley, rolling pin or screw driver, everything operates on a principle of power transfer process that happens between axles and wheels. Take a simple example of bicycle that uses the powerful mechanical combination of axles and wheels. Due to power transferred by axles to wheels, the bicycle works like a machine that takes you from one destination to another. The power is controlled by the means of brakes and force applied by a human body riding it. When a cyclist pedals, the axle move and ultimately spin the wheels. The whole piece of action creates a momentum that keeps the movement of bicycle going.

Custom made axles now a days are used to elevate this powerful action and increase the performance of your vehicle. Your cars and trucks receive amazing impact when driving from successful implementation of such specially designed axles. Let’s first understand the basic science of axles and how it makes a difference to the muscle of your vehicle’s performance.

The engineering of wheel and axle

As we saw how bicycle runs, we can also understand the mechanism of commonly used vehicles like cars and trucks. The combination of wheel and axle are engineered to work in harmony to produce excellent mechanical advantage that sets anything static into dynamic action. Apart from axels and wheels, there are other machines that contribute to the mechanical impetus such as pulley, lever, inclined plane, and screw. These are based on simple mechanisms that set the ball rolling to yield powerful mechanical advantage. With comparatively less human efforts, many heavy duty jobs can be done with the help of jack screw or cart wheels, pulley or slope gradients.

How does it function?

In a way, if spotted from cross sectional view, you will find that basically axle and wheel are two circles fit together to experience the power transfer mechanism and produce mechanical energy and dynamic movements of the machine where they are installed. While rotating, the force generated by human or fuel-based engine is transferred from custom made axles to wheel. The resultant mechanical advantage is calculated based on the ratio of the radius (or diameter) of the wheel over the radius of the axle.

Different type of axels

Depending on its gear mechanism, technical specification and force produced, many different types of axels are available for your vehicles. They are:

  • Rockwell axels
  • Unimog axels
  • Military axels
  • Portal axels
  • Moser axels
  • Trailer axels

Why custom made axles?

Unlike pre-designed traditional axels, customized axels that are designed to meet specific requirements of your vehicle are the best way to control torque and speed of wheels mechanical force exerted by the machine. It all comes down to mechanical advantage delivered by your vehicle through the help of diff axels and its gear structure.

Some of the potential benefits of custom made axles are:

  • Greater value of mechanical advantage and low amount of force needed to drive the machine ahead
  • Higher output force to efforts applied ratio
  • Better performance and faster speed
  • Increased ground clearance of axels
  • Ability to lift and carry heavier objects
  • Consistent power with reduced torque
  • Reduced size of differential casing for comfortable ground clearance
  • Effective regulation of speed and efficient power transfer while driving

Picking the right axles – axles upgrade

When it is time to replace or upgrade the existing axels of your vehicle, it is important to compile enough knowledge about how it is going to impact the speed, efficiency and performance of the vehicle in use. Diff axles are a critical choice and choosing the right axles for the upgrade is important in order to invest money in the first place. Many people end up spending a lot because of expensive, time-killing try-and-error solutions.

While selecting suitable custom made axles for your vehicle, one must consider factors such as weight, make and fuel efficiency of the vehicle. Wheel diameter, ground clearance, torque distribution and speed control, axle weight, type of suspension, the size of the components, and their effective results.

Leave a Comment: