Variable Tip Circle Diameter Gear for Synchronized Clamping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing clamping devices for long profile sections, such as pipe sections, lack precision due to deviations in gear wheel diameters, leading to insufficient synchronous guidance and clamping, resulting in tolerable errors in the range of micrometers, making it uneconomical to manufacture gears with precise dimensions for every component.
Innovation Solution
A gear wheel with a variable tip circle diameter along its circumference, allowing for exact synchronization of supports and clamping jaws by adjusting the effective outer diameter between them, enabling precise clamping and release with minimal deviation, using a gear wheel that can be rotated to align with the target diameter within a fraction of a full revolution.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If conventional gear wheels with fixed tip circle diameter are used, then manufacturing is simplified, but synchronization precision between supports deteriorates due to diameter deviations
Solution Approach 1:
The gear wheel transitions from a static fixed-diameter design to a dynamic variable-diameter design. The tip circle diameter varies continuously along the circumference, allowing the effective diameter to change as the gear rotates. This dynamic characteristic enables the system to achieve high synchronization precision (±2 μm) by selecting the appropriate effective diameter through rotation, while still using conventional manufacturing methods for producing the gear.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the geometric parameter of the gear wheel from a constant tip circle diameter to a variable tip circle diameter. The effective outer diameter becomes a function of the rotational position, allowing optimization of the synchronization precision by rotating the gear to the position where the effective diameter matches the target value. This parameter change resolves the contradiction by maintaining manufacturing simplicity while achieving high precision through parameter optimization.
2Manufacturing precision
If multiple series of gears are manufactured with precise dimensions, then synchronization precision improves, but manufacturing cost and complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
A single gear wheel design serves multiple functions: it provides a range of effective diameters through rotation, eliminates the need for multiple precision-gear series, and simplifies inventory management. The variable-diameter gear can be rotated to achieve the target effective diameter, making one gear type universal for applications that would otherwise require multiple precision-manufactured gear variants. This reduces device complexity while maintaining synchronization precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The dynamic capability of rotating the gear to select different effective diameters replaces the static approach of manufacturing multiple precision gear series. Instead of producing and managing multiple sets of precision gears, the system uses one variable-diameter gear that can be dynamically adjusted by rotation to achieve the required precision, significantly reducing manufacturing complexity and inventory requirements.
3Device complexity
If conventional fixed-diameter gear wheels are used, then structural simplicity is maintained, but clamping precision deteriorates due to diameter deviations
Solution Approach 1:
The invention changes the effective outer diameter parameter of the gear wheel from a fixed value to a variable value that depends on rotational position. This allows the system to achieve high clamping precision (±2 μm) by rotating the gear to the position where the effective diameter matches the target value. The structural simplicity of the gear itself is maintained, but the functional parameter (effective diameter) becomes variable, resolving the contradiction between structural simplicity and measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs a preliminary action by rotating the variable-diameter gear to the position where the effective outer diameter corresponds to the target diameter before executing the clamping operation. This preliminary positioning ensures that when clamping occurs, the precise effective diameter is already in place, achieving high clamping precision without complicating the overall gear structure.
Data Source
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AI summary
The invention relates to a device comprising supports (3, 4) which can be moved relative to each other and on the mutually facing walls of which toothed profiles (6, 7) are provided. Each said toothed profile interacts with opposing segments (31, 32) of a rotatable gear (2), by means of the rotation of which the supports (3, 4) can be moved in opposite directions simultaneously in a synchronized manner. The gear (2) has a varying tip circle diameter (d) along the gear circumference, wherein the tip circle diameter (d) increases along a segment (31, 32), and an effective outer diameter (dw) of the gear (2) is arranged between the supports (3, 4) in a clamped rotational position, said effective outer diameter (dw) matching a target diameter.