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Mechanical Engineering Department

MACHINE ELEMENTS
DEOLINDA E. CAPARROSO
Instructor
 Instant Center:
Location of Instant Center
ME 363 Topic No. 4

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 INTENDED LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of the lesson, the student should be able to:

1. Describe the concept of instant center.

2. Locate instant center using inspection method.
3. Locate instant center using Kennedy’s Rule.

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 Instant Center is a point, common to
two bodies in plane motion, wherein the
absolute instantaneous velocity in each
body is the same. They are also called
“centros” or “poles”.
Instant center may be an actual common
point between two bodies such as a pin
joint (a), or it may be a virtual common
point as shown in (b).

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 Types of Instant Centers
1. Fixed instant centers
- they remain in the same place for all
configurations of the mechanism.(i.e., I1,2
and I1,4).
2. Permanent instant centers
- they move when the mechanisms move
but the joints are of permanent nature
(i.e., I2,3 and I3,4)
3. Moving instant centers
- they vary with the configuration of the
mechanism (i.e., I1,3 and I2,4)

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 Number of Instant Center
For a mechanism containing 𝒏𝒏 number of links, the number of
instant center is determined by

n(n − 1)
N=
2

Example: In a four-bar mechanism, there are 6 instant centers

4(4 − 1)
N= = 𝟔𝟔
2

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 Kennedy’s Rule
“Any three bodies in plane motion will have exactly three
instant centers, and they will lie on the same straight line.”

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 Steps in Locating Instant Centers
1. Draw an IC circle with the same corresponding number of links
2. Locate as many obvious IC’s (fixed and permanent IC’s) as possible by
inspection. Label the IC’s accordingly. Connect the corresponding links on the
IC circle.
3. Identify a link combination on the IC circle for which the IC has not been
found. Draw a dotted line connecting those two link numbers.
4. Identify two triangles on the IC circle which each contain the dotted line and
whose other sides are solid lines representing IC’s already found.
5. Extend a line (on the linkage) connecting the two IC’s on one triangle. Do
the same for the other triangle. The intersection of the two extended line will
locate another IC.
6. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all IC’s are found.

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 Example (Four-bar)
I 1,3

4(4 − 1)
𝑁𝑁 = = 𝟔𝟔
2 I 3,4

I 2,3

I 2,4 I 1,2 I 1,4

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 Example (Slider-crank)
4(4 − 1)
𝑁𝑁 = = 𝟔𝟔
2 I 1,3

I 2,3
I 2,4

I 1,2
I 3,4

I 1,4 @ ∞

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 Example (six-bar) I 3,6
I 1,3
6(6−1)
𝑁𝑁 = 2
= 15
I 5,6
To I 2,4

I 1,5
I 1,6 @ ∞
I 2,3

I 2,6 I 2,5
1

I 3,4 I 4,5 I 3,5

6 2
I 1,2
I 1,4

5 3
I 4,6

MACHINE ELEMENTS
 Watch this video (ctrl + click the link):
Instant Center of Velocity
Instantaneous Center Method

Take note of the following while watching the video:

1. The inspection method of finding centros
2. Using triangles to find the other centros
3. Focus only on the method of finding centros
MACHINE ELEMENTS