Displacement prediction and optimization of a non-circular planetary gear hydraulic motor

The non-circular planetary gear hydraulic motor is a low-speed and high-torque hydraulic motor with excellent performance. It has the characteristics of a wide speed range, low weight and is widely used in various fields. Aiming to solve the problem of there being no intuitive formula for calculating the displacement of the non-circular planetary gear hydraulic motor at present, based on the analysis of the effects of structural parameters on the displacement of the motor, this paper proposes a formula for calculating the displacement of a non-circular planetary gear hydraulic motor when the pitch curve of the sun wheel is a high-order ellipse. The formula allows the direct calculation and prediction of the displacement of the motor. To improve the unit volume displacement of the hydraulic motor (which determines the power density of the motor), based on the analysis of the unit volume displacement constraints, an optimization equation is proposed by adding an optimization factor to the original equation of the pitch curve of the sun wheel. It is seen that the addition of the new optimization factor eliminates the self-interlacing of the pitch curve of inner ring gear. This elimination increases the unit volume displacement of the motor.

Design of a Noncircular Planetary Gear Mechanism for Hydraulic Motor

Given the design difficulty and poor accuracy of tooth profile of noncircular gear used in noncircular gear hydraulic motor, it is proposed to reduce the design difficulty and improve the design accuracy by using arc-shaped pitch curve instead of noncircular pitch curve with continuously varying curvature. Based on the geometric relationship and transmission relationship of the noncircular planetary gear mechanism, a nonlinear programming model is constructed for the circular arc-shaped pitch curve. By solving the nonlinear programming model, a noncircular planetary gear mechanism with a modulus of m = 1.5 is designed. The noncircular gear mechanism with the arc-shaped pitch curve was machined and installed in a hydraulic motor, and an efficiency comparison experiment was conducted with a high-order elliptical noncircular gear mechanism with a continuously varying curvature. The experiment shows that the efficiency of the two noncircular gear mechanisms is basically the same, and the best speed range is 100–400 rpm. The noncircular planetary gear mechanism with an arc-shaped pitch curve designed in this paper has reasonable structure, correct transmission relationship, and simple design method, which shows that the design method proposed in this paper has a good engineering application value.

Mathematical model and geometrical design method of noncircular face gear with intersecting axes

In order to establish the design method of a noncircular face gear (NFG) with intersecting axes, the meshing theory of this gear is investigated based on the principle of space gear meshing. A generalized approach for designing closed pitch curve of the NFG with intersecting axes was proposed based on Fourier series. The mathematical model of the NFG generated by a shaper cutter was established. The fundamental design parameters of the gears were defined, with the principle for determining their values discussed. The prototype of a NFG was machined by 5-axis CNC milling and the motion rule was tested. Experimental results verify the feasibility of the innovative transmission mechanism and the correctness of the mathematical model of NFG with intersecting axes.

Research and Test of Three-Pulley Noncircular Synchronous Pulley Transmission Mechanism with Minimum Slack

The noncircular synchronous belt drive mechanism has demonstrated certain achievements and has been used in special fields. Research regarding noncircular synchronous belt drive mechanisms has focused on optimization design and kinematic analysis in China, whereas two pulley noncircular synchronous belt transmissions have been developed overseas. However, owing to the noncircular characteristics of the belt pulley, the real-time variation in the belt length slack during the transmission of the noncircular synchronous belt is significant, resulting in high probabilities of skipping and vibration. In this study, a noncircular tensioning pulley is added to create a stable three-pulley noncircular synchronous belt driving mechanism and a good synchronous belt tensioning, with no skipping; hence, the non-uniform output characteristic of the driven pulley is consistent with the theoretical value. In the circular noncircular noncircular three-pulley noncircular synchronous belt mechanism, the pitch curve of the driving synchronous belt pulley is circular, whereas those of the driven synchronous belt and tensioning pulleys are noncircular. To minimize the slack of the belt length of the synchronous belt and the constraint of the concavity and circumference of the tensioning pulley, an automatic optimization model of the tensioning pulley pitch curve is established. The motion simulation, analysis, and optimization code for a three-belt-pulley noncircular synchronous belt drive mechanism is written, and the variation in belt length slack under different speed ratios is analyzed based on several examples. The testbed for a circular–noncircular–noncircular three-pulley noncircular synchronous belt transmission mechanism is developed. The test shows that the three-pulley noncircular synchronous belt drives well. This study proposes an automatic optimization algorithm for the tensioning pulley pitch curve of a noncircular synchronous belt transmission mechanism; it yields a stable transmission of the noncircular synchronous belt transmission mechanism as well as non-uniform output characteristics.

The method for synthesis of the contact ratio of noncircular bevel gears

As a type of spatial transmission mechanism, noncircular bevel gears can be used to transfer the power and motion with a variable transmission ratio between intersecting axes. In this paper, utilizing the spherical triangle theorem and meshing principle, the parametric equations of the contact ratio are established in the space polar coordinate system. Two innovative methods are proposed to analyze the contact ratio by using the rotation angle of the driving (driven) gears and the arc length of pitch curve as pure rolling. In the case of modified gear and X-zero gear, whether the noncircular bevel gear is continuously driven is deduced. The simulation transmission ratio curve and theoretical transmission ratio curve are compared to verify the rationality of the design.

Design of Geometrical Parameters and Kinematical Characteristics of a Non-circular Gear Transmission for Given Parameters

In this paper, the authors present the design of a suitable gear transmission with the continuously changing gear ratio in the range from 0.5 through 1.0 to 2.0 and back during one revolution of intermeshing gears, according to demands specified for a practical application. The gear train was designed as a pair of identical elliptical gears and the design procedure of the suitable pitch curve (ellipse) is described. The center of rotation of each of the gears is coincident with one of the pitch ellipse foci, so the gears are placed eccentrically. The gear teeth have involute profiles, but the involutes for the active and for the passive tooth sides are different. These are gears with an asymmetrical tooth profile. In the final part, the paper deals with kinematical characteristics of the designed non-circular gear transmission, which differ from the kinematical characteristics of standard circular gear transmissions with a constant gear ratio.

Design of Linear Functional Noncircular Gear with High Contact Ratio Used in Continuously Variable Transmission

Continuously variable transmission (CVT) of noncircular gears has the technical advantages of large bearing capacity and high transmission efficiency. This paper focuses on the linear functional noncircular gear pair to realize continuously variable transmission. According to the required working section transmission ratio of noncircular gear pair, the transmission ratio function in the non-working section, was constructed by using polynomial, and then the influence of pitch curve parameters in working section on which in non-working section was also analyzed. Furthermore, the pitch curve of the linear functional noncircular gear pair, which are suitable for transmission, were obtained. In order to improve the stability and bearing capacity of gear transmission, the noncircular gear pair transmission with high contact ratio was designed, and an indirect method to verify the contact ratio by detecting the contact length error of tooth profile was proposed. The error was calculated by comparing the actual contact tooth profile length obtained from the rolling experiment with the accurate value of contact tooth profile length based on the principle of gear and the property of involute profile, and the noncircular gear transmission with high contact ratio was verified.

Meshing principle and transmission analysis of a beveloid non-circular gear

To improve the stability and accuracy of non-circular gear transmission, a beveloid non-circular gear transmission scheme was developed to reduce the meshing impact and achieve backlash adjustment. When using the beveloid rack as the medium, the instantaneous contact line of the beveloid non-circular gear pair was shown to be a straight line, and the tooth surface was shown to be a ruled surface based on the transmission relationship between the rack centerline and the non-circular pitch curve. The zero-modification method was employed to develop the beveloid non-circular gear. Further, the generation method for the tooth profile of the modified non-circular gear was reviewed, and a digital solid model was developed for the beveloid non-circular gear. The physical contact simulation method was used to analyze the meshing backlash, and the influence of the axial displacement adjustment on the meshing backlash of the gear pair was obtained. By considering a pair of beveloid elliptic gears as an example, machining and transmission experiments were conducted, with results showing smooth gear-pair meshing and the anticipated backlash adjustment effect.

Design of Vegetable Pot Seedling Pick-up Mechanism with Planetary Gear Train

It has been challenging to design seedling pick-up mechanism based on given key points and trajectories, because it involves dimensional synthesis and rod length optimization. In this paper, the dimensional synthesis of seedling pick-up mechanism with planetary gear train was studied based on the data of given key points and the trajectory of the endpoint of seedling pick-up mechanism. Given the positions and orientations requirements of the five key points, the study first conducted a dimensional synthesis of the linkage size and center of rotation. The next steps were to select a reasonable solution and optimize the data values based on the ideal seedling trajectory. The link motion was driven by the planetary gear train of the two-stage gear. Four pitch curves of noncircular gears were obtained by calculating and distributing the transmission ratio according to the data. For the pitch curve with two convex points, the tooth profile design method of incomplete noncircular gear was applied. The seedling pick-up mechanism was tested by a virtual prototype and a physical prototype designed with the obtained parameter values. The results were consistent with the theoretical design requirements, confirming that the mechanism meets the expected requirements for picking seedlings up. This paper presents a new design method of vegetable pot seedling pick-up mechanism for an automatic vegetable transplanter.

Mathematical Model and Geometrical Design Method of Noncircular Face Gear with Intersecting Axes

In order to establish the design method of a noncircular face gear (NFG) with intersecting axes, the meshing theory of this gear is investigated based on the principle of space gear meshing. A generalized approach for designing closed pitch curve of the NFG with intersecting axes is proposed based on Fourier series. The mathematical model of the NFG generated by a shaper cutter is established. The fundamental design parameters of the gears are defined, with the principle for determining their values discussed. The results of simulation and experiment verify the feasibility of the novel transmission mechanism and the correctness of the mathematical model of NFG with intersecting axes.