LAUSR

Contact impact has been widely found in the operation of various mechanical systems. These mechanical systems include the type of mechanism typically characterised by circular–non-circular geometric contact. They consist of the mechanisms of the cam with a roller follower, a Geneva wheel with intermittent motion, a cog belt drive with circular-arc teeth, a cycloidal-pin wheel gear, and a roller chain drive. For the two components in contact, one component needs to have an ideal circular shape, while the other is characterised by its non-circular geometry, that is, the contact shape may present varying radii of curvature. Taking this kind of contact mechanical system as a research object, this work proposes a general method for analysing the problems concerning contact impact on this circular–non-circular geometry. This method discretises continuous non-circular geometries to acquire a series of discrete points. Then, the contact areas of components are determined by repeatedly judging the relationships between the positions for various discrete points and the circular geometric centres thereof. In the contact areas, the maximum depth of the contact is measured, and the positions of the contact points between components, in a direction along the maximum contact depth, are determined. Finally, the normal contact force and tangential friction force between contacting components are established at the contact points. This method can be applied to analyse the problems concerning single contact and multi-point contact among various contact components. To verify the validity of this method, this work takes an offset translational roller follower disc cam mechanism (with a single contact) and a cycloidal-pin wheel gear mechanism (with multi-point contact) as examples and investigates the dynamic characteristics of the contact impact for the aforementioned mechanical systems, respectively.