Generation and investigation of a new cycloid drive with double contact

A new cycloid drive with double contact lines between one tooth pair is presented in this paper. The new conjugated tooth profile is generated by applying double-enveloping gear theory in cycloid drives. Based on coordinate transformation and gear geometry theory, the meshing equation for this new cycloid drive is established at first, then the equation of tooth profile and meshing line and the formula of induced normal curvature are also derived. The meshing characteristics are investigated by theoretical analysis and numerical examples: the double contact characteristic is revealed by that the meshing function can be resolved into two independent factors; the contact lines at different instant and meshing line are illustrated based on a numerical example; the superior characteristics of the new conjugated tooth profile is represented by comparison of induced normal curvature with conventional cycloid drives. The physical prototype is trial-produced and the transmission error of the prototype is also tested, which shows that double-enveloping theory can be applied for cycloid drives.

► A new cycloid drive with double contact lines between one tooth pair is proposed.
► The generation method and the meshing characteristics are studied.
► The superior characteristic of double contact leads to relative high precision.
► The transmission error test result of the prototype is 41 s.