Virtual prototype design and experimental study on a patented double-ring-plate gear reducer

The virtual prototype design for a patented double ring-plate gear reducer (DRPGR) is proposed and some experimental tests are conducted. The modification coefficients of internal gearing in DRPGR are calculated with the closed-graph method followed by the determination of geometries and structure of the reducer. With virtual prototype technologies, a three dimensional solid model and two finite element model of DRPGR are developed, respectively. Based on the proposed models, a loaded tooth contact analysis (LTCA) and a modal analysis (MA) are conducted sequentially to predict stresses and natural frequencies of DRPGR. The LTCA reveals the stresses of internal gearing in DRPGR are much lower than permissible ones at rated output torque due to multi-mesh phenomenon. The MA indicates that the first order natural frequency of DRPGR is far away from resonance frequency. Following the proposed virtual prototype design rules, an experimental prototype of DRPGR is manufactured and tested. The experiments results agree well with the simulations of the proposed virtual prototype design.