MMEAT-2022 IOP Publishing

Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2383 (2022) 012006 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2383/1/012006

Study of contact load on cycloid wheel of RV reducer based on

MATLAB

Zihang Zhao1, a and Qing Zhang1, b

1
School of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Science and Technology,
Nanjing, China
a
email:953751743@qq.com
Corresponding author: bemail: dazhang@njust.edu.cn

Abstract. This paper analyses the working principle of RV reducer and the actual tooth profile
equation of cycloid wheel, and deduces the distribution law of contact load on cycloid wheel in
transient state by considering the initial meshing gap between pin teeth and cycloid wheel and
the contact deformation generated during meshing. Taking an RV reducer as the research
object, the contact load of the cycloid wheel is calculated by using MATLAB programming,
and the change curve of contact load and crank shaft rotation angle is obtained, which provides
theoretical support for the analysis and design of RV reducer.

1. Introduction
RV reducer is a new type of reducer developed on the basis of cycloid planetary transmission. The
cycloid planetary transmission is a multi-tooth mesh transmission, and the cycloid wheel is responsible
for transmitting speed and torque, which determines the performance of the RV reducer. The cycloid
wheel interacts with other components, so it is subject to a large number of loads and complex
distribution. Therefore, the study of the load distribution of the cycloid has a vital role in the design
and manufacture of RV reducers.
He and Li proposed the commonly used trimming methods for cycloid wheels and the force
equation of cycloid wheels[1-3]. Zhang established a model of the elastic rotation angle of the cycloid
wheel[4]. Qiao performed transient dynamics analysis of the meshing process of the cycloid wheel and
the needle tooth, and obtained the stress distribution diagram and the total deformation diagram of the
wheel tooth surface[5]. Li established a theoretical contact analysis model of the cycloid needle wheel
drive[6]. Zhang analyzed the three types of shaft bearing conditions in RV reducer to provide a
reference for the contact load generated by the crank bearing on the cycloid wheel[7]. Zheng, Xi
established a crank shaft force analysis method related to the rotation angle of the cycloid wheel and
crank shaft and used Adams software for system simulation[8].

2. RV reducer transmission characteristics

2.1. RV reducer structure and transmission principle

In Figure 1, The motor drives the input shaft 1 to rotate and transfer the speed from the sun wheel 1 to
the planetary wheel 2 to complete the first stage of deceleration. The crank shaft is used as the input
part of the second stage of deceleration, the cycloid wheel makes eccentric motion under the action of
the crank shaft, the cycloid wheel 4 rotates around the shaft under the action of the pinion 5, and the

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MMEAT-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2383 (2022) 012006 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2383/1/012006

planetary frame 6 transmits motion through the support bearings at both ends of the crank shaft to
achieve the second stage of deceleration.
K-H-V

K-H

6
7 3
2
4'
4 5

Figure 1. Tranmission principle of RV reducer.

2.2. Equation of tooth profile of cycloid wheel and its radius of curvature
The right-angle coordinate system is established at the center of the cycloid wheel, and the equation of
the cycloid wheel tooth profile.

 K1 sin Z b  sin 
 x  ( R p  rrp)sin   e sin Z b  ( Rz  rrz )
 1+K12  2 K1 cos Z g
 (1)
 y  ( R  rrp )cos   e cos Z   ( R  rrz )  K1 sin Z b  cos 
 p b z
1+K12  2 K1 cos Z g

The radius of curvature of the tooth profile of the cycloid wheel is

c 
R p  rrp   S 3/ 2
  Rz  rrz  (2)
K1  Z b  1 cos   1  Z b K12 
In the above equation: Rp is the radius of the circle of the pin; rrp is the distance shifted
modification; Rz is the radius of the pin; rrz is the equidistant modification; Z b is the number of pin;
K1 is the short amplitude factor, K1  eZb Rp ； S  1+K12  2 K1 cos  ;  is the angle of rotation of the
arm with respect to the pin, which is the meshing phase angle.

3. Study of Cycloidal planetary transmission contact load

3.1. Contact load of needle tooth and cycloid wheel

Ideally, half of the pin teeth are engaged with the cycloid wheel during the meshing process, and the
actual tooth profile after shaping is slightly smaller than the standard tooth profile, and there will be a
small meshing gap between the wheel teeth and the pin teeth, as shown in Figure 2.
According to the geometric conditions it is obtained that:

li ' li sin i sin i

  1  (3)
rb rg 1  K1  2 K1 cos i
2
S2

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MMEAT-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2383 (2022) 012006 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2383/1/012006

Y
F1
F2
F3
F4 P
F5
Fi Oi li
F7 li'
F8 i O rg
g X
F9
e Ob rb
Tg

 Rp
g

Figure 2. Contact load of needle tooth and cycloid wheel.

The initial clearance is calculated as follows:

 sin i   1  k cos   1  k 2 sin  

i  rrp 1    rrz  1 i 1 i
 (4)
 1  k 2
 2 k cos    1  k 2
 2 k cos  
 1 1 i   1 1 i 
Where i   0,180 , when i =arccosK1 , i  0 , which indicates that the initial engagement
clearance at the pin close to this angle is 0.
After loading the external torque, the cycloid wheel deflects around its own center by a small angle
 , and the contact deformation along the common law at each meshing point is

 i  li  (5)
The relationship between the amount of contact deformation at each engagement point and the
maximum contact deformation can be derived as
i l l
= i  i (6)
 max lmax rg
According to the Hertz formula, the maximum contact deformation  max is calculated as follows:

2 Fmax  1  u1   4  c 1  1  u2   4 Rz 1  
2 2

 max    ln    ln   (7)
 b  E1  c 2 E2  c 2 
 
Where c   4 Fmax   d  b    1  u12  E1  1  u22  E2  ;  d   c  Rz  R z   c  ; Fmax is the
maximum normal load at the point of engagement; u1 , E1 and u2 , E2 are Poisson's ratio and modulus of
elasticity of cycloid wheel and needle teeth.
So the contact deformation at each meshing point is
sin i
i    max (8)
1  k12  2  k12  cos i
Considering the uneven load distribution of the two cycloid wheels, it is assumed that Tg  0.55Tv ,
the maximum contact load at the point of engagement of a standard cycloid tooth profile is

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MMEAT-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2383 (2022) 012006 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2383/1/012006

4Tg 4Tg 2.2Tv

Fmax    (9)
rg Z b K1 Z g R p K1 Z g R p
The contact load at the point of engagement of the i pair of needle teeth with the cycloid wheel is

i  i
Fi  Fmax  (10)
 max
Assuming that pin teeth m to n are in engagement with the cycloid wheel, the equilibrium
relationship yields
n
Tg   Fi  li (11)
i m

Therefore, the maximum contact load at the point of engagement of the cycloid wheel is
Tg 0.55Tv
Fmax   (12)
  i  i  
n n 
li i 
 
 max
 li       li
im   i  m  rg  max 
The maximum contact load under the actual cycloidal tooth profile must first be solved for the
maximum contact deformation by first replacing it with the maximum load found under the standard
cycloidal tooth profile, which leads to errors in the calculated results and needs to be solved accurately
using an iterative algorithm.

3.2. Contact load at the cycloid wheels’ holes

3.2.1. Contact load of planetary frame and pin’s holes of cycloid wheel
When the cycloid wheel rotates clockwise, the planetary frame acts counterclockwise on the cycloid
wheel with a resistance moment Tg . The pin of the planetary frame on the left side of the Y -axis and
the pin holes of the cycloid wheel generate a contact load due to contact M i ,direction is the direction
of the common normal to the contact point.
Y Y
F i

F yi
F xi
P
M i
xo

Rs Nb 2 Nb 2 NO b1
yO

N b1 N N
Og e X
b3
Og  Nb3
X
 i Ob Ob rg
Tg Rs
rc
Mi g
Nb 2 N b1

i
Nb3

(a) (b)
Figure 3. Contact load at the cycloid wheels’ holes.

Under the action of the contact load M i , the center of the pin of the planetary frame produces a
counterclockwise displacement  along the circumference of the pin distribution, as shown in
Figure 3(a).

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MMEAT-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2383 (2022) 012006 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2383/1/012006

The sum of the moments of the forces on Ob at the contact points of each pin and pin hole is equal
to Tg ,where Rs is the radius of the distribution circle of the pin.
The contact load of the column pin on the cycloid wheel is
Tg 0.55  Tv
Mi   (13)
Rs  sin  i Rs  sin  i

3.2.2. Contact load of crank bearing and cycloid wheel’s bearing holes
In addition to the two above-mentioned loads, a contact load is generated by the bearings of the
cycloid wheel mating with the crank shaft. In order to facilitate the calculation and analysis of the
contact load generated by the crank bearing, the other two loads are applied to the node, and the
distribution of the three loads is shown in Figure 3(b).
The contact load on the cycloid wheel produced by the pin is divided into  Fxi and  Fyi along
the x -axis and y -axis. The load N on the cycloid wheel produced by the crank shaft bearing is
decomposed into N b1 tangent to the cycloid wheel’s pitch circle, N b 2 parallel to the axis and N b 2
parallel to the y -axis. According to the above equilibrium relations, the magnitudes of the three
contact loads are

 Fxi  Tg rg  0.55Tv  eZ g 


 N b1   Fxi   rg rc  n

 (14)
 N b 2   Fxi n

 N b 3 = ( M i  K y   Fxi ) n

   
Where: K y   2    1 K1   K12  1 2 K12  ln 1  K1 1  K1  ;  Fyi  K y  Fxi ; n is the number
of crankshafts; rc is the radius of the bearing distribution circle; rg is the radius of the cycloid pitch
circle.
In order to analyze the total load of the crank shaft on the cycloid wheel, a coordinate system xo oyo
is established in the cycloid wheel’s bearing holes, with the xo -axis tangent to the bearing bore
distribution circle and the yo -axis at an angle of  with the yo -axis. N is decomposed into N t along
the yo and N r along the yo , and according to the relationship between the action and reaction forces,
so

 N  N  N cos   N sin 
 t b1 b2 b3

 N r  Nb 2 sin   N b 3 cos  (15)


 N  N t  N r
2 2

4. Example Calculations
The parameters required for the above solution process are selected according to the dimensional
parameters of the RV reducer and the selected material, and the following calculation is based on the
RV-80E as an example.

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MMEAT-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2383 (2022) 012006 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2383/1/012006

Table 1. Data of Cycloid drive section.

Data Symbol Unit Value
Number of cycloid wheel’s teeth Zg  39
Number of pin Zb  40
Radius of pins’ distribution circle Rp mm 76
Radius of pins Rz mm 4
Eccentric distance e mm 1.5
Thickness of Cycloid wheel b mm 16
Shifting distance shaping amount rrp mm -0.008
Isometric shaping amount rrz mm -0.004
Modulus of elasticity E1、E2 MPa 2.06  105
Poisson's ratio u1、u2  0.3

4.1. Contact load of needle tooth and cycloid wheel

The output torque is 700N  m , according to equations, the maximum meshing force and maximum
contact deformation for the standard tooth profile are Fmax  658.12N and  max  0.0015mm .
Using this initial value for iteration, the error is set to 0.001Fmax . After the condition is satisfied by
the iteration, use Matlab to write a program to calculate and plot the change curve with the crank shaft
rotation angle before and after the iteration.
-3
10
4.5 1200
Uniterated-contact load
4 Iteration-contact load
1000
3.5

3 800

2.5
600
2

1.5 400

1
200
0.5

0 0
0 18 36 54 72 90 108 126 144 162 180 0 18 36 54 72 90 108 126 144 162 180
Crank shaft rotation angle/(°) Crankshaft rotation angle/(°)

(a) (b)
Figure 4. Curves of initial meshing gap, contact deformation and load.

As can be seen from Figure 5(a), the points that satisfy the  i  i  0 condition before and after
the iteration are different. Before the iteration, there are 8 points that satisfy the condition, and after
the iteration, there are 9 points that satisfy the condition, so the number of meshing teeth is 9.
According to the magnitude of the theoretical value of the contact load at the pinto engagement
point, it is found that the contact load varies greatly before and after the iteration, and the maximum
contact load after the iteration is Fmax  1013.85N 。

4.2. Contact load of planetary frame and cycloid wheel

In the transmission process,   60 , the radius of the distribution circle Rs =46mm of the plunger
pins of the planetary frame, only the contact load is generated between the plunger pin on the lower
left side and the cycloid wheel, the magnitude of which is M  9664.34 N .

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MMEAT-2022 IOP Publishing
Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2383 (2022) 012006 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2383/1/012006

4.3. Contact load of crank shaft bearing and cycloid wheel

The three bearing holes of the cycloid wheel are evenly distributed at 120 degrees, and Rc =46mm , as
shown in Figure 4. In the coordinate system, the magnitude of the total contact load after
decomposition through the synthesis of forces is
 N  N  N cos 60  N sin 60  2112.420N
 t b1 b2 b3

 N r  N b 2 sin 60  N b 3 cos 60  3077.624 N


 N  N t  N r  3732.839 N
2 2

As the crank shaft rotates, the contact load of the crank bearing on the cycloid wheel changes as
shown in the following figure.
8000

6000

4000

2000

-2000

-4000

0 60 120 180 240 300 360 420 480 540 600 660 720
Crank shaft rotation angle/(°)
Figure 5. Curves of Contact load with crank shaft rotation angle

5. Conclusion
(1) The maximum contact load value 658.12N calculated without iteration, and the maximum contact
load calculated after iteration is 1164.5N , the maximum contact load error is 43.5%. The error before
and after the iteration is large, so the maximum contact load must be iterated continuously until the
error requirement is met in order to accurately calculate the contact load for each engagement point.
(2) The contact load of the crank shaft bearing on the cycloid wheel is synthesized by a fixed load
and two rotating loads, and the distribution changes with the rotation of the crank shaft, and the total
load variation period is 2 .
(3) The detailed calculation of the contact load on the cycloid wheel of an RV reducer provides
data support for its dynamics analysis and lays a theoretical foundation for optimizing the RV reducer
structure and improving the transmission accuracy of the RV reducer.

References
[1] Li, L. X. (1984). Tooth shape correction and force analysis of planetary transmission with
cycloid pinwheel. Journal of Dalian Railway Institute, 4, 29-40.
[2] Li, L. X., He, W. D., Wang, X. Q., Li, C. B., Wu, Z. W., & Fang, R. (1999). Research on high
precision RV transmission for robots. Journal of Dalian Railway Institute, 20(2), 1-11.
[3] He, W. D., & Li, L. X. (1992). Efficiency of RV transmission and its force analysis. Journal of
Dalian Railway Institute, 13(1), 73-81.
[4] Zhang, Y. M., Yang, Q., & Ji, S. (2019). Contact analysis of cycloid wheel meshing loading
based on trimming. Combined Machine Tools and Automated Machining Technology, (5),
27-30.
[5] Qiao, X. T., Zhang L. B., Chen C. S., Yan C. F., Wang C. L.,Wang W. G. (2020). Study on

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Journal of Physics: Conference Series 2383 (2022) 012006 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/2383/1/012006

transient contact performance of meshing transmission of cycloid gear and needle wheel in
RV reducer. The Journal of Engineering, 2020(14), 1001-1004.
[6] Li, T., Tian, M., Xu, H., Deng, X., An, X., & Su, J. (2020). Meshing contact analysis of
cycloidal-pin gear in RV reducer considering the influence of manufacturing error. Journal
of the Brazilian Society of Mechanical Sciences and Engineering, 42(3), 1-14.
[7] Zhang, Z. Q., Wang D. F., Liu, S. C., Li X. H., & He C, G. (2016). Force analysis of bearings
for RV speed reducers. Bearings, (10), 1-3.
[8] Zheng, Y. X., Xi, Y., Yuan, L., Li, M. R., & Huang, Z. (2017). Analysis on crankshaft force and
transmission accuracy of RV reducer. Journal of Machine Design, 34, 44-49.

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