Synthesis of epicyclic gear trains with one and two degrees of freedom from kinematic chains belonging to minimal sets

Abstract

The enumeration of kinematic chains for epicyclic gear trains allows obtaining all the possible configurations from specified structural characteristics. However, the more complex becomes the desired structure, the greater the number of options to analyse in order to select the most suitable one, therefore, it is necessary a criterion to reduce this range of choices. The variety of kinematic chains and the concept of minimal sets can be used for this purpose. This paper enumerates the kinematic chains with zero variety for epicyclic gear trains with one and two degrees of freedom, and with up to four independent loops. Some epicyclic gear trains generated from the chains belonging to minimal sets are presented afterward, and the advantages of using zero variety chains are discussed.