Computer Aided Design and Analysis of the Rack and Pinion Mechanism

Abstract

Abstract The general procedure for synthesizing the rack and pinion mechanism for six precision conditions is developed. To illustrate the method, the mechanism has been synthesized in closed form for generating both four prescribed path points with input coordination and two positions of function generation. This is the extension of the work reported earlier on this mechanism where only three path precision points were satisfied. The rack and pinion mechanism has a number of advantages over the conventional four bar linkage mechanism. First, since the rack is always tangent to the pinion, the transmission angle has a constant optimum value of 90 degrees minus the pressure angle of the pinion. Second, because both translation and rotation of the rack are possible, multiple outputs are available. Generation of monotonic functions for a wide variety of motion, and nonmonotonic functions for the full range of motion as well as nonlinear motions, are other advantages of this mechanism. The rack and pinion mechanism has applications in the packaging industry, in toys, and automotive steering mechanisms. In this work, the mechanism is made to satisfy a number of practical design constraints such as a completely rotatable input crank and others. Also, structural errors for function generation are calculated to give an estimate of the accuracy of the mechanism. The method of solution developed in this work uses the complex number method of mechanism synthesis and a FORTRAN program is written to find the solutions for any input.