Kinematic error analysis and tolerance allocation of cycloidal gear reducers

This paper presents a method for kinematic error analysis and tolerance design of cycloidal gear reducers. The relationships between parameters concerning geometry, manufacturing, and precision performance for the cycloidal gear reducer are introduced and then investigated via the theory of gearing. First, an algorithm based on the discretization of the cycloidal tooth profile is developed to perform tooth contact analysis of the cycloidal gear reducer. Then, a computer-aided procedure using the Monte Carlo method is established to analyze the distribution of kinematic error once the tolerance distributions of the geometric and manufacturing parameters are known. Finally, the tolerances of the parameters are optimized with the objective of minimizing the manufacturing cost. The reliability of the optimization results is also verified by analyzing samples using the previously developed computer-aided algorithm. Two examples are given to demonstrate the design procedure used in applications of the findings of this study.