DESIGN OF NONCIRCULAR GEARS WITH DISCONTINUOUS PITCH CURVE

When the noncircular gear pair is applied to the continuously variable transmission （CVT） with gear, the transmission ratio function is discontinuous. In accordance with this unique characteristic, a new approach to design and analyze noncircular gears with discontinuous pitch curve is proposed. The design courses of various noncircular gear pairs with discontinuous pitch curve are unified based on the numerical algorithm of spline fitting and ＂fairing boundary condition＂. According to the particularity of discontinuous pitch curve, the rules and procedures for teeth distribution are recommended. It is explained in detail why the undercut is formed and how to manage the undercut based on meshing principle.In addition, the calculation formulas for each tooth profile segment are also derived. If the tooth profile data are calculated, the measurement and the incision process for noncircular gear can be conducted and the CAD simulation can be achieved easily. To ensure the continuity of the transmission, the transmission interference of the tooth which is located at the pitch curve joint point is managed by utilizing Bezier curve with CAD software. And the contact ratio of gear pair is obtained. The case study shows that this approach is successful and opens up a new way for the design of noncircular gear.

Cutting Force Fluctuation Suppression and Error Homogenization of Noncircular Gear Hobbing Based on the Tool Shifting Method

The current research on noncircular hobbing mainly focuses on the linkage model and motion realization.However,the intermittent cutting characteristics of hobbing would increase uncertainties in the manufacturing process.In this paper,a hobbing machining model with tool-shifting characteristics was proposed to solve the problems of cutting force fluctuation and inconsistency of tooth profile envelope accuracy at different positions of the pitch curve in noncircular gear hobbing.Based on the unit cutting force coefficient method,the undeformed chip volume generated by interrupted cutting was used to characterize the fluctuation trend of the hobbing force.The fluctuation characteristics of the cutting force generated by different hobbing models were compared and analyzed.Using the equivalent gear tooth and hob slotting numbers,an analysis model of the tooth profile envelope error of the noncircular gear was constructed.Subsequently,the tooth profile envelope errors at different positions of the pitch curve were compared and analyzed based on the constructed model.The transmission structure of the electronic gearbox was constructed based on the proposed hobbing model,and the hobbing experiment was conducted based on the selfdeveloped noncircular gear CNC hobbing system.This paper proposes a hobbing method that can effectively suppress the fluctuation of the peak and whole circumference cutting force and reduce the maximum envelope error of the whole circumference gear teeth.

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

Continuously variable transmission(CVT)of noncircular gear has the technical advantages of large bearing capacity and high transmission efficiency.The key technology of CVT with noncircular gear has been broken through some countries,and is in the stage of deep application research.Although the characteristics and design methods of noncircular gear pairs have been continuously studied in China,the noncircular gear CVT is still in the preliminary exploration and research stage.The linear functional noncircular gear pair,whose transmission ratio is a linear function in the working section,to realize continuously variable transmission was the research object in this paper.According to the required transmission ratio in the working section,the transmission ratio function in the non-working section was constructed by using a polynomial.And then the influence of pitch curve parameters in the working section on which in the non-working section was also analyzed to obtain the pitch curve suitable for transmission of this gear pair.In addition,for improving the stability and bearing capacity of gear transmission,the noncircular gear pair transmission with high contact ratio was designed.Furthermore,the accurate value of the contact tooth length was calculated based on the gear principle and the characteristics of the involute tooth profile,from this the contact tooth length error was calculated by comparing the accurate value with its actual value obtained by the rolling experiment.Finally,an indirect method to verify the contact ratio by detecting the contact length error of the tooth profile was proposed.

Novel Design Solutions for Fishing Reel Mechanisms

Currently, there are various reels on the market regarding the type of mechanism, which achieves the winding and unwinding of the line. The designers have the purpose of obtaining a linear transmission function, by means of a simple and small-sized mechanism. However, the present solutions are not satisfactory because of large deviations from linearity of the transmission function and complexity of mechanical schema. A novel solution for the reel spool mechanism is proposed. Its kinematic schema and synthesis method are described. The kinematic schema of the chosen mechanism is based on a noncircular gear in series with a scotch-yoke mechanism. The yoke is driven by a stud fixed on the driving noncircular gear. The drawbacks of other models regarding the effects occurring at the ends of the spool are eliminated through achieving an appropriate transmission function of the spool. The linear function approximation with curved end-arches appropriately computed to ensure mathematical continuity is very good. The experimental results on the mechanism model validate the theoretical approach. The developed mechanism solution is recorded under a reel spool mechanism patent.

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 pickup 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.