Influence of the Fixed Angle of the Non-circular gears on the Intermediate Shaft on the Gear Ratio Function Characteristics ☆

This paper shows the influence of the fixed angle of non-circular gears (NCGs) on the gear ratio function characteristics of the compound non-circular gear (CNCG) train. The research established a mathematical model describing the centrodes of a typical CNCG train. The fixed angle β of non-circular gears on the intermediate shaft is changed to evaluate its effect on the gear ratio of the CNCG train. The results show that changing the fixed angle of non-circular gears on the intermediate shaft changes the transfer function law of the system and can increase the speed variation range on the output shaft. With the parameters of the designed CNCG train, changing the angle β can increase the amplitude of the gear ratio function to 30.19%. A CNCG train with a speed variation range from 1.37 to 5.11 has been experimentally designed and manufactured with an improved cycloid profile considering the tooth number distribution and satisfying the condition of avoiding undercutting. On that basis, an experimental system to determine the gear ratio of the CNCG train based on the meshing between the gear pairs in the CNCG train has been designed and manufactured. The experimental results showed that the maximum error of the gear ratio function is about 7.63% compared with theoretical ones. In this study, we have not considered the influence of force and torque on the experimental gear ratio. We can apply the results of this research to transmission systems to obtain a speed variation.