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Crank, slotted arm and toothed sector driving a rack
How does a crank in a slotted arm move a rack back and forth? · Hardware · basis: Xem Studio design following Brown No. 131 (1868)
Also called: sector and rack, crank slotted arm rack, oscillating sector rack, manivela, brazo ranurado y sector dentado, Kurbelschleife mit Zahnsegment und Zahnstange
Exact dimensions. True size, with no printing tolerance added.
- sizes
- 5 in table
Notes
- A crank pin, in a slide block, runs in the slot of an arm pivoted 70 mm from the crank centre: the arm rocks through ±9.9° (sin⁻¹ 12/70). A 60-tooth sector on the same pivot turns with the arm and drives a rack below: the rack moves R × angle = 30 mm × 0.346 rad = 10.4 mm total, each way, with the quick-return timing of the slotted lever.
- Drawn at crank angle 200°: arm at 9.71°, rack 5.08 mm from mid-stroke, teeth meshed on the sector's pitch circle.
- Brown's No. 131 (rectilinear motion of a rack from a crank by a slotted arm and toothed sector).
- Parts (each has its own page): slotted-arm-sector-gear-m1-60t-60deg-b5, gear-rack-m1-120-full-depth, crank-disc-36-pin-r12, slide-block-12x6, dowel-pins-metric.
- Brown's movement No. 131 (1868) shows it; this model is a Xem Studio design following his figure, every part at true size.
Crank, slotted arm and toothed sector driving a rack size chart
| parameter | value |
|---|---|
| crank radius | 12 mm |
| pivot distance | 70 mm |
| arm swing | ±9.9° |
| sector | 60 T, R30 |
| rack stroke | 10.4 mm |
Where the files are
Other publishers' files are linked, not hosted. "verify" = check the license at the link before commercial use.
| Henry T. Brown (1868, public domain) | Five Hundred and Seven Mechanical Movements — scan on archive.org | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
| 507movements.com | Brown's movement No. 131: figure, his text and an animation | web | Publisher's page; dimensions are facts |
Free files
★ Free files 1 parts. Xem Studio design: free to use, print and sell things from; not to be republished as files. Xem Studio Design License. index.json
| crank-slotted-arm-sector-rack-mechanism-assembly | Assembled mechanism, all parts placed at one pose (STEP keeps each part separate) | STEP · STL |
https://xemstudio.com/mcp to Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any MCP client (free, no account, one minute) and it can look up exact sizes, mating fits and free STEP/STL from every chat.Plain text: sheet.txt · JSON: /api/geometry?object=crank-slotted-arm-sector-rack-mechanism

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Questions
How does a crank in a slotted arm move a rack back and forth?
A crank pin, in a slide block, runs in the slot of an arm pivoted 70 mm from the crank centre: the arm rocks through ±9.9° (sin⁻¹ 12/70). A 60-tooth sector on the same pivot turns with the arm and drives a rack below: the rack moves R × angle = 30 mm × 0.346 rad = 10.4 mm total, each way, with the quick-return timing of the slotted lever.