Mechanical Advantage - Differential Pulley
Description
Mechanical advantage is a measure of the force amplification achieved by using a tool, mechanical device or machine system. Ideally, the device preserves the input power and simply trades off forces against movement to obtain a desired amplification in the output force.A differential pulley, also called “Weston differential pulley”, sometimes “chain hoist” or colloquially “chain fall”, is used to manually lift very heavy objects like car engines. It is operated by pulling upon the slack section of a continuous chain that wraps around pulleys. The relative size of two connected pulleys determines the maximum weight that can be lifted by hand.
Related formulasVariables
MA | mechanical advantage of a differential pulley (dimensionless) |
R | radius of the larger pulley (m) |
r | radius of the smaller pulley (m) |