Mechanical Systems 1 Blog

   Chapter Four - Vector Loops Learning to Love Loops!          Have you ever woken up in the morning and wanted to draw a vector loop for a four-bar linkage?                   I haven't either, but we're going to do one today.     Sometimes it is necessary to draw a vector loop for a four-bar linkage. Such a case is with a crank slider, where the rocker is not a physical link and must be imagined. Slider cranks are popular inversions of the four-bar and have real world applications with things such as pistons.          This image depicts a as the crank, b as the coupler, c as the rocker, and d as the ground.     The x and y components of this crank slider can be broken up into two separate equations, as follows:                                 ...

Straight Line Linkages Getting Handy  with Hoeken !     The Hoeken straight line linkage produces approximately straight motion along a curve. This motion can be optimized for straightness or for constant velocity. At the extremes of the two, some sacrifices have to be made. Ov eroptimized straightness and velocity comes at a limited range of motion that this straightness will be in - i.e., the motion will be s traight for a smaller distance. This can be seen by using the table located in the textbook.     The Maximum  ΔCy% column of the table indicates how much Cy is allowed to change along the straight portion of the motion. 0.00001% indicates that Cy can only change in vertical position by that percent - making it the most constrictive option in the table.  Δx in the table is the section of the curve that is straight.      Considering first a  ΔCy of 0.00001% and a L2 length of 1 in, the  Δx value would be 0.601 inches. For ...