A Variation Analysis Method for Linkage Mechanism with Consideration of Joint Clearance and Deformation

Abstract

As typical transmission mechanisms, linkage mechanisms are widely applied in mechanical engineering field, and accuracy prediction of them has received much more attentions especially from some high-precision application fields. For a certain linkage mechanism system, external forces will also cause linkage deformations and deterministic oriented-drift of joint clearances, which become additional variation sources besides component tolerances. In order to perform a more accurate prediction of linkage mechanism, a variation analysis method is proposed in this study, in which component tolerances, joint clearances and deformations are considered. With an equivalent method, positional tolerance and joint clearances are taken into the present variation analysis model, and serve as circular tolerances. Based on classical Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, linkage deformations are disposed as equivalent deviations and contribute to assembly deviations. A decomposing method of percentage contribution, which contains different variation sources, is presented as well. A case study of four-bar linkage mechanism is illustrated to validate the accuracy of the present method by corresponding FEA simulation and experimental test. Moreover, a case study of a three-loop mechanism is also analyzed for the accuracy and percentage contribution of different variation sources with the present method.