Kinematics of tripode transmissions. A new approach (Q1306157)

The study focuses on the kinematics of tripode transmissions aiming at both improving the presentation of some known facts and providing some new results. A novel approach has been proposed based on a search for intrinsic parameters of a simplified tripode joint with the output shaft staying in a fixed direction. Due to the triple symmetry of tripode joint, the authors are able to obtain the intrinsic parameters of the tulip-to-tripode matrix transformation. In particular, the authors investigate a constant velocity joint, show that the sum of roller-to-tripode centre distances only depends on the joint angle, study a tripode centre located on a circle called the offset, and finally examine the triple frequency behaviour of the offset. These properties have been derived first algebraically and then geometrically using the properties of the \(120^\circ\) angle. For the whole transmission with two real joints, the kinematic equations are solved numerically by Newton-Raphson procedure, and the results are compared to simplified joint calculations. The phase angle between the two joints is also introduced, and its influence on the kinematics is discussed through the roller-to-tulip distances.