Trammel of Archimedes – Three Sliders

Mechanical motion demonstration model

This model demonstrates a Trammel of Archimedes with three sliders, a classical kinematic mechanism used to generate elliptical motion using constrained linear movement.

By rotating the central element, three sliders move back and forth along linear guides, each with a different phase offset.

Due to the geometric constraints of the mechanism, the sliders never collide, even though they are driven by the same rotating motion.

How it works

The Trammel of Archimedes (also known as an ellipsograph) is a planar linkage where points constrained to perpendicular linear paths generate an ellipse.

In this extended three-slider version:

• A single rotational input drives all sliders

• Each slider is constrained to its own linear guide

• The mechanism has one degree of freedom

• Motion is smooth, periodic, and fully deterministic

More about the mathematical background: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsograph