Method for manufacturing bulk metallic glass-based strain wave gear components
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsDouglas C. Hofmann, Brian H. Wilcox
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods in accordance with embodiments of the invention implement bulk metallic glass-based strain wave gears and strain wave gear components. In one embodiment, a method of fabricating a strain wave gear includes: shaping a BMG-based material using a mold in conjunction with one of a thermoplastic forming technique and a casting technique; where the BMG-based material is shaped into one of: a wave generator plug, an inner race, an outer race, a rolling element, a flexspline, a flexspline without a set of gear teeth, a circular spline, a circular spline without a set of gear teeth, a set of gear teeth to be incorporated within a flexspline, and a set of gear teeth to be incorporated within a circular spline.
Claims5
A method of fabricating a strain wave gear component comprising:
- shaping a bulk metallic glass (BMG)-based material, having an elastic limit of greater than or equal to approximately 1% and a stiffness of less than 112 GPa, using a mold in conjunction with one of a thermoplastic forming technique and a casting technique wherein the BMG-based material is shaped into one of:
- a wave generator plug, an inner race, an outer race, a rolling element, a flexspline, a flexspline without a set of gear teeth, a circular spline, a circular spline without a set of gear teeth, a set of gear teeth to be incorporated within a flexspline, and a set of gear teeth to be incorporated within a circular spline.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.