Optimal design of the horn gear for rotary three-dimensional braiding machine

Abstract

The carrier of the rotary three-dimensional braiding machine goes along the track of baseplate through the horn gear. The track path can be changed by rotating the transfer 90°, and the carrier is not allowed above the transfer during the conversion process. The machine usually needs to be shut down before rotating the transfer because of the small size of the horn gears. This will greatly reduce the production efficiency of the equipment. To achieve the purpose of no downtime braiding, this paper intends to analyze the key factors leading to intermittent braiding. A mathematical model of the relationship between the radius of the horn gear and structural, process parameters of the braiding machine is established, and constraint equations of the horn gear are obtained. A kinematics model of carrier moving on the transfer is established, and evaluation functions for carrier stability and impact resistance are inferred. Using MATLAB software to draw evaluation function curves of the carrier. The relationship between the radius of the horn gear and the stability and impact resistance of the carrier under different speed of the horn gear is studied, and the optimal solution distribution is obtained, therefore it improves the production efficiency and the stability of continuous operation.

Keywords:

• Rotary three-dimensional braiding machine
• horn gear
• transfer
• kinetics
• optimal design

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of the article: This work was supported by the Special Fund of Scientific and Technological Achievements Transformation in Jiangsu Province (grant number BA2018061), the Program of Jiangsu Innovative Talent (grant number 20171122), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and Graduate Student Innovation Fund of Donghua University (grant number CUSF-DH-D-2020055).