Formation by branches of envelope to parametric families of surfaces and curves (Q5944610)

Envelopes of parameter families of curves and surfaces play a significant role in planar or spatial gearing. Within this paper, the authors discuss an important parameter case, namely when the generating curve or surface consists of more than one branch. The authors give criteria to distinguish between different branches of the generated envelopes, and show how to compute them analytically. The results are illustrated in two planar and one spatial gearing problems.