An open question about gear sets

[Potlatch]

I have a question regarding the identification and practical application of a specific gear set type. First let me say I am not an engineer nor do I have an engineering background, but I do have extensive construction industry experience so specifications in relation to blueprints and sections come fairly easy to me.
My proposed gear set consists of two parts, first an outer gear I could only describe as a internal ring gear, I think the terminology for this gear is also “helical” because the gears need to be slightly skewed or slanted. Picture (Ring gear attached)
The second gear would be a geared shaft that fits inside the ring gear. The shaft for my application needs to be considerable in length, at least 20’ with an approximate diameter of 2”.
My particular application would require the ring gear when fit over the geared shaft, would rotate as it descended from top to bottom (and vis versa) of the stationary shaft, more importantly though is the reverse of this same process, if the ring gear were not allowed to rotate, but the ring gear is moved vertically over the geared shaft, can it turn the geared shaft? Are there specific ratio’s involved is creating such gears and how would I begin to understand the process enough to intelligently research such a design?
Any help or input to my question would be greatly appreciated.

 

[tbuelna]

Potlatch,

While your post was not clear on the issue, if the external gear "shaft" has the same number of teeth as the internal ring gear, then what you are probably describing is a helical "spline".

And yes, helical splines are used to convert axial motion to rotary motion, or vice-versa. The most common example that comes to mind is in the Bendix device, used in automotive starter motor pinion gears to get them to smoothly engage with the flywheel/flexplate ring gear.

Hope that helps.
Terry

 

[leisure17]

or a kiddies spinning top mechanism or push screwdriver,