Positioning accuracy prediction of precision cycloid reducer based on a BDDTE model and use in design optimization

As users' expectations for precision cycloid reducer positioning accuracy rise, accurate positioning accuracy prediction of products before assembly and design solutions to improve product qualification rates are very important. Considering the actual manufacturing conditions of components, a new multi-source error (MSE) equivalence modeling assumption and pin gear's MSE measurement method are proposed, and the rationality of the assumption is verified through experiments. Based on the geometric characteristics of each component's MSEs, a new analytical model of bi-directional drive transmission error (BDDTE) is established, which organically unifies the prediction of transmission error (TE) and lost motion (LM). The influence of the output mechanism on the positioning accuracy of the entire reducer is found to be non-negligible through Monte Carlo simulation; meanwhile, the general tolerance allocation scheme makes it difficult to ensure that each prototype meets the performance requirements. For this reason, a new design solution for the positioning accuracy of the reducer with the pin gear and output mechanism as the optimization targets is proposed. Finally, the prototype test results show that the BDDTE model based on the new assumption has a higher accuracy in predicting positioning accuracy compared with the model based on the conventional assumptions. Meanwhile, the effectiveness of the proposed improvement design solution for positioning accuracy improvement is verified. The BDDTE model reveals the intrinsic connection between the TE and LM of the cycloid reducer, and the improvement solution has guiding effects on improving the product qualification rate.