Epicyclic or Planetary Gear Train
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Epicyclic or Planetary Gear Train
An alternative way of using gears to transmit rotary motion is to detach one
or more of the gear centres from ground and allow them to rotate about
one or more fixed gears resulting in planetary motion.
They could have two degrees of freedom; which means that two inputs are
needed to obtain a predictable output.
In some cases, such as the automotive differential, one input is provided (the
drive shaft) and two frictionally coupled outputs are obtained (the two
driving wheels).
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When compared with gear trains on fixed-position axes, epicyclic gear
trains (or simply epicyclics) possess significant advantages, which in
certain circumstances may justify the additional complexity:
• they are compact in space requirements;
• both static and dynamic forces are balanced if multiple planets are used;
• a high torque-capacity can be achieved by the use of multiple planets;
• high gear-ratio can easily be achieved, although this often results in high
planet speed;
• a variable gear-ratio (either stepless or selective) can be achieved in a
number of ways.
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ωout
ωarm=0
Arm - 1
Input No.1 ωout Input No.1 Planet-3
ωin ωarm
1 1
1 Arm
Input No.2
Pinion - 2 ωin
Gear - 3
Sun-2
Conventional gear set: Epicyclic train with a sun gear and planet gear
•One degree of freedom orbiting around the sun, held in orbit by the arm
•Link 1 is immobilized as the ground link •Two degrees of freedom (2 inputs)
•Link 1 now free to rotate as an arm that
connects the two gears
• In many cases, one of the inputs will be zero velocity, i.e. a brake is applied to either the arm or
the sun gear.
• Note that a zero input to the arm merely makes a conventional train out of the epicyclic train.
Thus the conventional gear train is simply a special case of the more complex epicyclic train, in
23 which the arm is held stationery.
In previous example of epicyclic train, the only gear left to take an
output from, after putting inputs to sun and arm, is the planet. It is a bit
difficult to get a useable output from this orbiting gear, as its pivot is
moving. A more useful configuration is with a ring gear added.
Planet-4
Planet-4
Ring Gear-5
Ring Gear-5
Input No.1
ωarm Arm-3 Sun-2
Arm-3
Sun-2
Arm-3
1
Input No.2 Bearing-1
ωsun
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While it is relatively easy to visualize the power flow through a
conventional gear train and observe the directions of motion for its
member gears, it is very difficult to determine the behaviour of a
planetary train by observation.
We must do the necessary calculations to determine its behaviour and
may be surprised at the often counter intuitive results.
Since the gears are rotating with respect to the arm and the arm itself
has motion, we have velocity difference problem;
gear arm gear arm
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Tabular Method
One approach to the velocity analysis in an epicyclic gear train is to create
a table to represent the relative velocity for each gear in the train.
The analysis is carried out in the following three steps:
1. Lock all gears to the arm and rotate the arm. Tabulate the resulting
turns of the arm and of each gear.
2. Fix the arm and rotate one or more of the sun gears. Tabulate the
resulting turns of each gear.
3. Add the turns of each gear in steps 1 and 2 so that the given
conditions are satisfied.
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