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Four bar linkage

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A four bar linkage or simply a 4-bar or four-bar is the simplest movable linkage. It
consists of 4 rigid bodies (called bars or links), each attached to two others by single
joints or pivots to form a closed loop.

Four-bars are simple mechanisms common in mechanical engineering machine design

and fall under the study of kinematics.

If each joint has one rotational degree of freedom (i.e., it is a pivot), then the mechanism
is usually planar, and the 4-bar is determinate if the positions of any two bodies are
known (although there may be two solutions). One body typically does not move (called
the ground link, fixed link, or the frame), so the position of only one other body is
needed to find all positions. The two links connected to the ground link are called
grounded links. The remaining link, not directly connected to the ground link, is called
the coupler link. In terms of mechanical action, one of the grounded links is selected to
be the input link, i.e., the link to which an external force is applied to rotate it. The
second grounded link is called the follower link, since its motion is completely
determined by the motion of the input link.

Planar four-bar linkages perform a wide variety of motions with a few simple parts. They
were also popular in the past due to the ease of calculations, prior to computers,
compared to more complicated mechanisms.

Grashof's law is applied to pinned linkages and states; The sum of the shortest and
longest link of a planar four bar linkage cannot be greater than the sum of remaining two
links if there is to be continuous relative motion between the links. Below are the possible
types of pinned, four-bar linkages;

Contents
[hide]
[edit] Notable four-bar
• 1 Notable four-bar linkages linkages
• 2 Biological four-bar linkages
• 3 See also • If the input link may rotate full 360
• 4 References degrees, it is called a crank. The linkage
is called a crank-rocker if the input link
• 5 External links
 is a crank and the opposite link is a rocker. If the opposite link is also a crank the
linkage is called a double-crank.
• Pantograph (four-bar, two degrees of freedom, i.e., only one pivot joint is fixed.)
• Crank-slider, (four bar, one degree of freedom)
• Double wishbone suspension
• Chebyshev linkage (straight-line four-bar linkage)

[edit] Biological four-bar linkages

Four-bar linkages also occur in biological systems, most notably in the jaws of wrasses, a
highly diverse group of marine fish. One link, typically taken as the reference, is the
neurocranium (braincase). Attached to this are the nasal bone and mandible (lower jaw),
the tips of which are joined to the maxilla (upper jaw). When the lower jaw is pulled
down, this results in movement of the nasal and maxilla. As in mechanical four-bar
linkages, the relative proportion of the link lengths determines the resulting movement.
Fish which feed by biting hard-shelled organisms or biting off chunks of coral have four-
bar linkages that optimize force output, but those which prey on smaller, faster fish have
linkages that increase the speed of jaw protrusion for suction feeding. Furthermore,
multiple combinations of link-lengths can have the same resultant force or speed, and as a
result, not all wrasse species which feed on the same prey will have the same jaws. This
results in a phenomenon called 'many-to-one mapping', in which there are multiple
morphological solutions to the same ecological problem, which in turn fosters great
morphological diversity. [1]

[edit] See also

• Cognate linkages

[edit] References
1. ^ Wainwright et al. (2005) "Many-to-One Mapping of Form to Function: A General
Principle in Organismal Design?" Intergrative & comparative biology 45:256–262.

[edit] External links

• mechanisms101.com- Flash Four-bar Linkages simulator
• softintegration.com- Animated GIF Four-bar linkage with triangular coupler link
• Kinematic Models for Design Digital Library (KMODDL)
Movies and photos of hundreds of working mechanical-systems models at Cornell
University. Also includes an e-book library of classic texts on mechanical design
and engineering.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_bar_linkage"

Categories: Kinematics | Linkages
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• This page was last modified on 24 June 2009 at 13:59.

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