Design of a novel nutating gear reduction mechanism with rolling elements

In this paper the principle of a novel nutating gear reduction mechanism is put forward. This mechanism is made with a minimum number of parts, and can realize constant ratio of speed transmission. Typically, an input member will be provided with means initiating nutating or wobbling movement in the device. In addition, the device system employs two series of rolling elements in the form of balls as the means of precision transmission. In this manner, gear teeth are eliminated and replaced with a stator where there are many looped grooves, with the rolling elements operating between the grooves, on the one hand, and the rotor where there cuts a continual groove, on the other hand. Compare with other nutating drives, this drive has preload structure to eliminate backlash. In this paper, the problems such as the engagement pair structure, tooth profile synthesis and movement analysis are studied. According to transform matrix method, theoretical profile equations of the stator and the rotor are established.