Comparative analysis of meshing characteristics with respect to different meshing rollers of the toroidal drive

This paper investigates meshing characteristics of the toroidal drive with different roller shapes, examines the effect on the characteristics from roller shapes and produces a comprehensive comparative study. Based on the coordinate transformation, the paper introduces the generic models of meshing characteristics and characterizes the meshing to introduce both undercutting and meshing limit curves. The paper further develops meshing functions and their derivatives with respect to each drive type with a different roller shape. This leads to a comprehensive examination of each meshing characteristics against each drive type of a roller shape. The comparative study focuses on the effect of contact curves, tooth profile, undercutting, meshing limit curves and the induced normal curvature. This helps develop the tooth profile of the sun-worm, characterize undercutting and meshing limit curves with different roller shapes and identify the roller shape with the least induced normal curvature. The study is then extended to contact stress comparison and to verifying the least contact stress of the roller type. This naturally leads to an examination of manufacturability with respect to different roller types.