Highly Repeatable Rope Winch Design With Multiple Windings and Differential Gear Mechanism

Abstract

This paper presents a rope winch with high position repeatability using a differential gear mechanism. This winch is easy to apply to existing buildings using synthetic fiber ropes, which are generally used by building exterior maintenance workers, and can be widely utilized as a winch of a gondola or climbing robot. Multiple pulleys are used to achieve high payloads, and differential gear mechanisms are used to distribute the torque across each pulley evenly. Uniform torque distribution minimizes slipping on each pulley, which reduces the power loss due to friction. This is proven through an analysis using the capstan equation and an experiment on a test bench. In addition, a criterion for the position repeatability of the winch is designed, and its results show that one pressure roller achieves optimal performance when the roller at the free end is pressed to 37 N. Extensive experiments were carried out on the final model of the winch, and position repeatability of under 50 mm deviation per 10 m was achieved through stable torque distribution under various payloads.