Arbeitsräder

Arbeitsräder is a historical term used in German mechanical engineering to refer to the wheel in a machine that directly performs the working function, as opposed to wheels that merely transmit motion. The word combines Arbeit (work) and Rad (wheel). In older technical literature, das Arbeitsrad denotes the wheel that transfers power to the working mechanism—for example, the wheel that drives a shuttle on a loom or that actuates a cutting or shaping action in an early machine.

The concept emphasizes a functional distinction within a drive system: some wheels are responsible for the actual work performed by the machine, while others primarily alter speed, direction, or torque. In contemporary engineering, this distinction is typically expressed with more precise terms such as Antriebsrad (driving wheel) and Abtriebsrad (driven wheel), or by naming the specific function of the wheel (for instance, cutting wheel or weaving beat wheel).

Today, Arbeitsräder is rarely used in modern technical writing and is mainly of historical interest. It appears in translations and older descriptions of machinery from the early industrial era, when vocabulary for mechanical power transmission was still in flux.

See also: Gear, Gear train, Driving wheel, Driven wheel.

References to Arbeitsräder are primarily found in historical engineering dictionaries, treatises on early textile machinery, and legacy machine descriptions.