Effect of tooth profile modification on lubrication performance of a cycloid drive

Abstract

A numerical study on contact performance of a cycloid drive lubricated with the grease is conducted. The effect of the tooth profile modification on lubrication performance is emphasized. Four profile modification methods are proposed and their influences on the length of the line of action, the pressure and the film thickness are compared. Results show that at a certain manufacturing accuracy, the lubrication performance of the one with a combined modification is better than the performance of the ones with single modification. The combined negative equidistant and negative radial-moving scheme has the best lubrication performance while the single negative radial-moving modification scheme has the worst lubrication performance among the selected schemes. Effect of the amount of the radial-moving modification and the amount of the combined negative equidistant with negative radial-moving modification are studied and results show that as the modification value increases, the length of LOA, the load-carrying capacity, and the film thickness decrease, which represents a worse lubrication performance. After modification, the lubrication performance of the engaging tooth pair would deteriorate. The higher the manufacturing precision, the smaller the amount of the modification, the better the lubrication performance.