In this paper, the authors present the design of a suitable gear transmission with the continuously changing gear ratio in the range from 0.5 through 1.0 to 2.0 and back during one revolution of intermeshing gears, according to demands specified for a practical application. The gear train was designed as a pair of identical elliptical gears and the design procedure of the suitable pitch curve (ellipse) is described. The center of rotation of each of the gears is coincident with one of the pitch ellipse foci, so the gears are placed eccentrically. The gear teeth have involute profiles, but the involutes for the active and for the passive tooth sides are different. These are gears with an asymmetrical tooth profile. In the final part, the paper deals with kinematical characteristics of the designed non-circular gear transmission, which differ from the kinematical characteristics of standard circular gear transmissions with a constant gear ratio.

Summary. Dangerous vibrations of mechanical systems' components are causes of failures and reduction in service life, as well lead to negative effects on the environment and the health of operators. In order to reduce these unwanted vibrations, it is necessary to pay attention to the proper design of components in mechanical systems. The aim of this article is based on the experimental measurements and demonstration of the effects of different types of flexible couplings on the size of vibration in a gearbox that forms part of a mechanical system.

Development and application of pneumatic flexible shaft couplings have been in the center of our department research activities for a long time. These couplings are able to change torsional stiffness by changing pressure in their flexible elements – air bellows. Until now we have dealt with the use of pneumatic flexible shaft couplings for tuning mechanical systems working with periodically alternating load torque at steady state. Some mechanical systems, however, operate with a static load torque at constant speed (e.g. hoists, elevators, etc.), where it is necessary to consider the suitability of shaft coupling in terms of load torque at transient conditions (run-up and braking). Therefore we decided to analyze the use of pneumatic flexible shaft couplings also in this type of mechanical systems on an example of conveyor belt drive.

Article citation info:Kaššay, P., Urbanský, M. Torsional natural frequency tuning by means of pneumatic flexible shaft couplings.Summary. This article deals with the use of pneumatic flexible shaft couplings as device for tuning torsional natural frequencies of mechanical systems. These couplings are using air bellows as flexible elements. Their torsional stiffness can be changed by air pressure change, the natural frequencies of whole mechanical system may be adjusted on desired value.

No abstract