Development of a Design System for Multi-Stage Gear Drives Considering Configuration Design

배치설계를 고려한 다단 기어장치 설계 시스템 개발

The design of multi-stage gear drives is a time-consuming process that includes additional design problems, which are not considered in the design of single-stage gear drives. In the previous research works, the authors have proposed a new algorithm to design multi-stage gear drives at the preliminary design phase. The proposed design algorithm automates the design process by integrating the dimensional design and the configuration design process. In the configuration design process, the positions of gears and shafts are determined by minimizing the geometrical volume (size) of a gearbox. However, various types of spatial constraints should be satisfied in practical design situation. To locate input and output shaft in specified positions is the typical example of such problems. In this paper, the authors show the formulations of spatial constraints applied to the design of four-stage gear drives. The design solution shows considerably good results, and the design system is confirmed to be readily applicable to practical design situation.