3D Tutorial 09: Rack-and-Pinion Mechanism in Blender

A Rack-and-Pinion refers to a gear mechanism which converts rotational motion into linear motion. It consists of an involute gear wheel (pinion) and a mating toothed bar (rack). The teeth of a rack-and-pinion pair can be straight or helical. A rack-and-pinion is found in the steering mechanism of vehicles and many other places.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to design a rack-and-pinion mechanism in Blender and test it with Blender's rigid body physics engine. Both straight-toothed and helical gears are covered.

The end result of this tutorial, a .blend file containing a functional rack-and-pinion mechanism, can be downloaded via the link below.

Rack-and-Pinion Calculator