Noncircular gear pair
AssigneeUniversity of Maryland, Baltimore County
InventorsWeidong ZHU, Gang LI
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present disclosure describes innovations to improve the use of noncircular gear pairs in a transmission, e.g., an infinitely variable transmission. The noncircular gear pair includes a first noncircular gear with a first pitch curve; and a second noncircular gear with a second pitch curve. The first pitch curve includes a plurality of elliptical portions, and a curvature of the first pitch curve is positive along the entire first pitch curve; and wherein the second pitch curve is a conjugate of the first pitch curve.
Claims20
A noncircular gear comprising:
- a pitch curve including a plurality of elliptical portions and a plurality of modified transition portions, wherein each of the plurality of modified transition portions is positioned between adjacent ones of the plurality of elliptical portions.
A noncircular gear pair comprising:
- a first noncircular gear with a first pitch curve;
- and
- a second noncircular gear with a second pitch curve;
- wherein the first pitch curve includes a plurality of elliptical portions, and a curvature of the first pitch curve is positive along the entire first pitch curve;
- and
- wherein the second pitch curve is a conjugate of the first pitch curve.
A method of manufacturing a gear pair, the method comprising:
- calculating kinematic equations of the gear pair;
- generating a high-order non-circular pitch curve based on the kinematic equations;
- modifying the pitch curve to remove cusps to create a modified pitch curve;
- generating a tooth profile on the modified pitch curve;
- and
- cutting the tooth profile with a shaping cutter.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.