Lecture 6: Gear Train Design (Kinematic) 1. Type Synthesis: What type of gear train is appropriate?

Simple external, compound, epicyclic? 2. Dimensional Synthesis: What are the dimensions (e.g., radii)? a. Design Parameters : In general these are the parameters you must select/specify in order to draw the gear train. For a single gear the dp's are typically the location of the center of the gear and it's radius (i.e., (Xi , Yi , ri)). dp = # of design parameters. b. Constraint Equations: These are the equations that the design parameters must satisfy written in terms of the dp's. For example, for a simple gear train with 4 gears in contact and "in-line" there are 5 constraints that must be satisfied (3 for contact and 2 for "inline"). See Example 1 given below. ce = # of constraint equations. c. Design freedoms / "free choices" remaining after satisfying the ce constraint equations fc = dp - ce. d. If fc > 0, can optimize with respect to some objective function (e.g., cost). Note that there may be "availability" constraints that do not allow the "optimal" solution to be implemented (e.g., pitch or tooth number restrictions). See Example 2 given below. Example 1 (Hyperlink gives Mcad Tutorial for 3-gear gear train) The gears are arbitrarily located in the plane. #dp's = 4 gears x 3 dp's/gear = 12 dp's.: (X1,Y1,r1), (X2,Y2,r2), (X3,Y3,r3) The gears are in contact. 3 constraints:
r1 + r2 r2 + r3 r3 + r4

( X X ) 2 + ( Y Y )2 1 2 1 2 ( X X ) 2 + ( Y Y )2 2 3 2 3 ( X X ) 2 + ( Y Y )2 3 4 3 4

0.5

0.5

0.5

#dp's remaining 12 - 3 = 9. The gear centers lie on the same line. 2 constraints (slope of line 13 = slope of line 12, slope of line 14 = slope of line 12):
Y3 Y1 Y2 Y1 X3 X1 Y4 Y1 X4 X1 X2 X1 Y2 Y1 X2 X1

#dp's remaining 12 - 3 - 2 = 7 If you make choice of reference frame (3 constraints), #dp's remaining = 12 - 3 - 2 - 3 = 4. Normally the remaining 4 dp's used are the radii (r1 , r2 , r3 , and r4).

Example 2