Geometric Design of Micro-Reducer With Multi-Output Shafts Distributed in Regular Polygon Form

Based on the theory of space curve meshing, a space curve meshing wheel (SCMW) transmission mechanism has been invented by present authors in recent years. To extend applications of the SCMW, design methods for a novel micro-reducer with multioutput shafts distributed in regular polygon form is proposed in the paper. It is featured with three regular polygons nested. The middle regular polygon, named as reference regular polygon (RRP), is composed of transmission shafts. Three aspects are proposed as below to design the reducer: first, primary design parameters are determined by research and experience, and formulas of center distances are derived; second, an approach to establish the analytical model of the RRP simply and effectively is presented, which shows that the geometric dimensions of the reducer mainly depend on the side length of the RRP; and third, the novel micro-reducer is determined after the side length formulas of the RRP derived from the model. The simplicity and effectiveness of the formulas presented are demonstrated by a series of computational simulations.