Wave Plug Microgrooves for Stable Strain Wave Gear Bonding
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Solution Overview
Problem
In strain wave gearing, the adhesive effect between the wave plug and wave bearing is reduced and becomes uneven during press-fitting due to adhesive being scraped out, leading to a decrease in the joining force and increased variability in the pulling-out force.
Innovation Solution
The formation of adhesive-retaining grooves on the plug external peripheral surface and/or the inner-race inner peripheral surface retains the adhesive during press-fitting, minimizing adhesive loss and ensuring a consistent and increased joining force by using microgrooves of no greater than micrometer-order width and depth, arranged in specific patterns to enhance wetting and retention.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If adhesive is applied to the inner-race inner peripheral surface during press-fitting, then the joining force between wave bearing and wave plug is improved, but the adhesive is scraped out by the plug external peripheral surface causing uneven adhesive effect
Solution Approach 1:
The invention applies local quality by creating grooves at specific locations on the plug external peripheral surface or inner-race inner peripheral surface. These grooves concentrate the adhesive in specific regions, ensuring that adhesive is retained where needed while preventing it from being scraped out uniformly across the entire surface. This localized adhesive retention solves the contradiction by maintaining strong joining force while achieving uniform adhesive distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The grooves are formed in advance on the plug or inner-race surface before the press-fitting process. This preliminary action prepares the surface topology to control adhesive behavior during subsequent assembly. By pre-configuring the surface with adhesive-retaining grooves, the invention ensures that adhesive will be properly retained and distributed during the press-fitting operation, preventing both excessive scraping and uneven distribution.
2Strength
If press-fitting is performed to secure wave plug and wave bearing, then the joining force is increased, but adhesive is scraped out reducing the adhesive effect
Solution Approach 1:
By creating grooves at specific locations on the plug or inner-race surface, the invention concentrates adhesive in localized regions where it is most needed. These grooves act as adhesive reservoirs that prevent the adhesive from being scraped out during press-fitting. This localized retention strategy reduces overall adhesive loss while maintaining effective joining force.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention converts the potentially harmful effect of press-fitting (which scrapes out adhesive) into a beneficial process. By pre-forming grooves that are designed to work with the press-fitting action, the relative movement between plug and inner-race during assembly actually helps distribute adhesive into the grooves rather than scraping it away. This transforms the harmful scraping action into a mechanism for controlled adhesive distribution and retention.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively reduces adhesive loss during press-fitting, increases the remaining adhesive between the wave bearing and wave plug, stabilizes the pulling-out force, and minimizes unevenness in the joining force, thereby enhancing the overall adhesive effect and pulling-out force.
Implementation Method 1
adhesive-retaining grooves are formed in the plug external peripheral surface and/or the inner-race inner peripheral surface. The adhesive between the plug external peripheral surface and the inner-race inner peripheral surface is retained in the adhesive-retaining grooves during the press-fitting of the wave plug.
Data Source
Figure 1(a)~1(b)
Figure 2(a)~2(b)
Figure 3(a)~3(g)
AI summary
In a wave generator (4) for a strain wave gearing (1), a plug outer peripheral surface (43) of a rigid wave plug (42) has a non-circular profile and is fixed to an inner-race inner peripheral surface (45) of a wave bearing (44) by press-fitting and using an adhesive. The plug outer peripheral surface (43) is a groove formation surface in which microgrooves (46) are formed as adhesive-retaining grooves that can retain the adhesive. When the wave plug (42) is press-fitted into the wave bearing (44), the amount of adhesive that is scraped out from therebetween is reduced and the bonding strength therebetween can be increased while also preventing unevenness of the bonding strength.