The operation of an automobile steering gear is intermittent with low angular velocities and frequent direction reversals. For a typical Rack and Pinion Steering (RPS) gear used in light vehicles, the span of movement of the rack is limited to approximately four rotations of the pinion. For this limited span of rack travel, the torque required to rotate the pinion is tested for satisfactory functioning of the steering gear. The torque variation due to engagement and disengagement of the pinion teeth, mesh friction variation, and spring force that keeps the gears in mesh, etc., are obtained from the virtual prototype developed in Automatic Dynamic Analysis of Mechanical Systems (ADAMS) software, where, the manufacturing errors are also incorporated. Comparisons of the results from the virtual prototype with those from laboratory tests validate the correctness of the proposed prototype in ADAMS. This prototype lends itself for the implementation of improvement concepts and performance testing.
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