Mathematical Machining Model and Simulation of

Limacon Gear Set

Wu Yujuan Ren Tingzhi Liu Dawei Jin Xin

College of Mechanical Engineering
Yanshan University
Qinhuangdao, China
wyj0106@163.com

Abstract—Limacon gear is a new kind of non-circular gear, and

its gear set have precise transmission ratio. The principle of
generating method is that tooth profile of the conjugated gears
can form envelope graph to each other. Aimed at the processing
problem of limacon gear set with involute tooth profile, the tooth
profile equation of the gear shaping cutter was established. The
position relationship between the cutter’s and the gear’s pitch
curve was analyzed, and a simpler machining mathematical
model was put forward. The gear set machined with this model
have been put into practice, and have gained favorable effect. So
this model is important to designing and manufacturing limacon
gear set both in theory and in practice.
II. MATHEMATICAL MODEL OF GEAR SET AND CUTTER
A. Pitch Curve of Limacon Gear Set
Limacon gear set transimision is shown in Fig. 1. The gear
1 is called limacon gear. And R is base radius, r1 is radius of its
pitch curve, and e denotes the eccentricity. The gear 2 is an
non-circular gear conjugated with gear 1, and its pitch curve
radius is r2, ij1 and ij2 are the polar angles of the two gears. The
center distance of the two gears is a. Pitch curve equation of
limacon gear 1 is

Keywords-non-circular gear; limacon gear; generating method;

r1 = R + e cos ij1 . (1)
mathematical model; simulation

Define a/R = d, e/R = İ(distortion rate), then the pitch curve

I. INTRODUCTION
Non-circular gear transimission technology has been used
more and more widely in sorts of mechanical industry, because
it has lots of merits in geometry and kinematics and so on[1].
Limacon gear is a new kind of non-circular gear, and its gear
pitch curve is changed according to cosine rule and can satisfy
pitch curves’ restrictions[2]. This new kind gear has an
extensive applied foreground. Since the basic theory of
limacon gear has been research systematically, it is necessary
to study the processing principle of limacon gear inorder that
more reasonable and effective processing schemes can be
established.
The processing principle of limacon gear set with involute
tooth profile is based on the generating method, which is same
with the common gear. During the cutting process the cutter’s
pitch curve is tangenty with the limacon gear’s, and pure-
rolling, and the gear’s tooth profile can be formed by the
envelope graph of cutter’s tooth profile[3]. Numerical control
technology was appaered with the development of computer,
but there are still some problems in maching precision,
efficiency and stability. So it is still the key point to bulid high
efficiency and practical processing mathematical model. Take
gear shaping process of limacon gear set for example, the
position relationship between the cutter’s and the work piece
gear’s pitch curves was analyzed, and the meshing equation
was deduced. Also the model was simulated and validated with
MATLAB computer language.
equation of non-circular gear 2 is
­ r2 = a − r1 = a − R(1 + İ cos ij1 )
°
® ij1 1 + İ cos ij1 . (2)
°ij 2 = ³ 0 d − (1 + İ cos ij )dij1
¯ 1
The basic parameters of limacon gear can not be set
optionally. We should checkout whether the pitch curve is
concave or convex and whether the tooth bottom is undercut or
not[4]. The parameters R and e (or İ) should satisfy the
restrictions: the pitch curve of the gear is closed and the gear
tooth can be distributed symmetrically on the pitch curve.
B. Tooth Profile Equation of the Cutter
Inorder to simulate the gear shaper cutter used in practice in
utmost degree, The tooth profile of the cutter was devided into
several segments as is shown in Fig. 2. AB is a segment of arc,
BC is involute and Segment CD is a straight line[5].
Coordinate system x2O2y2 is fix-up with the gear shaping
cutter. We bulid another coordinate system xrO2yr (shown in
Fig. 2), in which yr-axis overpass point B, and the rotating
angle between xr-axis and x2-axis is ș0. Tooth profile equation
of each part of the cutter are described respectively.
1) Segment AB: Coordinate of a certain point on AB is (xr1,
yr1), and ȥ is the arc angle. r0 is the arc radius. So we have

Natural Science Foundation of Hebei province: Transmission theory and

numeric manufacturing technology of limacon gear (E2008000819)

978-1-4244-7739-5/10/$26.00 ©2010 IEEE

 where rt ——addendum circle radius of point D;
r1 r2 r ——pitch radius of the cutter.
ij1 ij2
O1 O2
According to Fig.2, we can obtain the coordinate
2R

1 2 conversional matrix Mr2 from coordinate system xrO2yr to
x2O2y2. And half of the tooth profile equation can be obtained
e e by converting the equations of each segment into coordinate
a
x2O2y2, shown in (7) and (8). Since the cutter’s tooth shape is
symmetrical about y2-axis, we can get the tooth profile
equation of the other side by symmetrical conversion. And then
Figure 1. Limacon gear set.
the equations of other teeth can be deduced by rotational
y2 coordinate conversion. Finally the whole teeth shape figure can
yr D be finished.
C
ra
B
rt ª cos ș 0 − sin ș 0 0º
A
rf Mr2 = «« sin ș 0 cos ș 0 0 »» (7)
r rb
¬« 0 0 1 ¼»
xr

ș0
O2 x2 ª x2i º ª xri º
Figure 2. Geometrical shape of cutter’s tooth profile.
«y » = M «y » (i = 1, 2,3) (8)
« 2i » r 2 « ri »

«¬ 1 »¼ «¬ 1 »¼

­ xr1 = −r0 + r0 sin ȥ; yr1 = rb − r0 cos ȥ

® ,
¯0 ≤ ȥ ≤ ʌ 2
Where rb ——base radius of the involute.
2) Segment BC: Based on the polar coordinate equation of
involute, we can get the equation for segment BC
­ xr 2 = ri sin ș i ; yr 2 = ri cos și
° point. And rg denotes pitch radius of cutter, that is O2P = rg.
®și = tan Įi − Įi ;Įi = arccos ( rb ri ) ,
°r ≤ r ≤ r + h
¯b i a
where ri ——the radius any point on gear tooth;
Įi , și ——pressure angle and rolling angle of involute;
ha ——addendum height, ha = m, in which m is the
modulus.
3) Segment CD: Suppose (xC, yC) denotes the coordinate of
point C, and ĮC is the corresponding pressure angle, so
equation for segment CD can be expresssed
(3)
III. MESHING EQUATION
In Fig. 3, the coordinate xOy and x2O2y2 are fixed up with
the gear and the cutter separately. At initial position, the
cutter’s center O2 locates at point O20, and P0 is the tangent
point of pitch curves of the cutter and gear. During the
machining process, the pitch curves of the cutter and work
piece are tangent to each other, and are under a pure rolling
condition[6]. At a certain time point P becomes the tangent
(4) Here L denotes the distance between the center point of cutter
O2 and the gear’s rorating center O, and the angle between line
OO2 and x-axis is Į. At this moment OP denotes the pitch
radius of the gear and ϕ is the corresponding polar angle.
It is clear that the locus of the cuttre’s center point is an
equidistant curve of the gear’s pitch curve. From Fig. 3, in
¨OO2M and ¨OPN, we have
­° L sin Į1 = r cos ( ʌ − ȝ )
® , (9)
°̄ L cos Į1 = r sin ( ʌ − ȝ ) + rg

xr 3 − xC Where ȝ ——Angle between the positive direction of polar

= tan ( ș C + ĮC ) . (5) radius and the tangent line overpass meshing
yr 3 − yC
point P on the pitch curve.
We can change it into From (9), we obtain

°­ yr 3 = ( xr 3 − xC ) cot ( șC + ĮC ) + yC ­ L = r 2 + r 2 + 2r r sin ȝ
® , (6) °° g g
2 2
°̄ r + ha ≤ xr 3 + yr 3 ≤ rt ® − r cos ȝ . (10)
° tan Į1 =
°̄ r sin ȝ + rg
 y2 The above mathematical moled were calculated and
y demonstrated by computer graphic simulation with MATLAB
M O2 x2 language.
N ȝ
Fig. 4 is the flow chart of the programme. The simulating
Į1
P result is shown in Fig. 5.

ij
Į Given the basic parameters of limacon gear: modulus m = 6,
teeth number z1 = 40, distortion rate İ = 0.4. And for the cutter:
O P0 O20 x(y20) modulus m = 6, teeth number z2 = 18. Then we can gain
simulating result: Fig. 5(a) denotes the simulating processing
x20
graph of the limacon gear, and Fig. 5(b) is for the conjugated
non-circular gear. It is clear that, using this programme, the
envolope graphs of the limacon gear set will be obtained easily
just by inputing the basic parameters.
Figure 3. Sketch map of generating method.

According to the geometrical relationship, we have V. CONCLUSIONS

The pitch curve equations of limacon gear set were given
and the teeth profile equations were bulided. With the
­ L = r 2 + r 2 + 2r r sin ȝ processing principle of generating method, the position
°° g g
relationship between pitch curves of the cutter and the work
® § −r cos ȝ ·. (11)
piece was analyzed, and a simpler machining mathematical
°Į = ȝ + ij − arctan ¨¨ ¸¸ model was put forward. According to this model the generating
¯° © r sin ȝ + rg ¹ process was demonstrated by computer graphic simulation.
Equation (11) is the meshing equation between work-piece During the simulating process, we can see the relationship
and cutter during processing, also it denotes the locus equation between the cutter and the work piece intuitively and estimate
of cutter’s center point. the gear’s machinability. We can get wrong machining
informations directly by the screen if the gear’s parameters
For the limacon gear 1, based on (1) and (11), it is easy to were not designed suitably. Then we can change the paramaters
obtain timely until achieving a satisfying result. So this model is
important to designing limacon gear set. It also established a
theory basic for obtaining high quality gear sets during
­ R 2 A2 C + rg2 C + 2rg RA2 manufacturing stage.
°L =
° C
® , (12) Start
° §B· § RAB ·
°Į = arctan ¨© A ¸¹ + ij1 − arctan ¨¨ RA + r C ¸¸
¯ © g ¹ input eǃmǃz

where A = 1+ İcosij1; B = İsinij1;

Ɏ=0
C = 1 + İ 2 + 2İ cos ij1
.
calculate aǃL
For the conjugated gear 2, considering ȝ1 + ȝ2 = ʌ, the
meshing equation is
coordinate of cutter’s center(O2)

­ (a − RA) 2 C + rg2 C + 2rg (a − RA) A Cutter’s teeth profile graph with O2 as center point
°L =
° C
® . (13)
° §B· § (a − RA) B · Ɏ = Ɏ + ¨Ɏ
°Į = − arctan ©¨ A ¹¸ + ij 2 + arc tan ¨¨ (a − RA) + r C ¸¸
¯ © g ¹
Y
Ɏ ” 2ʌ
IV. MACHINING SIMULATION OF LIMACON GEAR SET N
Based on the locus equation of the cutter’s center,
End
coordinates of each piont on tooth can be calculated by
programme when the cutter’s position changed gradually. A
Figure 4. Flow chart of the program.
series graph of the cutter teeth will be formed and the teeth
graphs of the limacon gear set were enveloped by the cutter.
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT
A part of this work was belonded to the project of
“Transmission theory and numeric manufacturing technology
of limacon gear”, supported by “Natural Science Foundation of
Hebei province”. We thank the sponsor and other members of
this project for technical support. We thank authors of the
references for offering us the permission to cite and reproduce.

REFERENCES
[1] Li Fusheng,Dai Youhu,Han Deben, Non-circular Gear. Beijing: China
Machine Press, 1975, pp. 1–6.
(a) Limacon gear
[2] Ren Tingzhi, Liu Cai, “Study on the gear which its pitch curve is
changed as cosine rule conjugated with the non-circular gear,” Beijing,
Chinese Journal of Mechanical Engineering, vol. 40, pp. 181–184,
October 2004.
[3] Wu Xutang. Meshing Principles of Gear. Beijing: China Machine Press,
1982, pp, 16–43.
[4] Ren Tingzhi, Cheng Aiming, Jing Fengru, “Limacon gearand conjugated
gear’s goemetry analyse and simulation,” Chinese Journal of Mechanical
Engineering, vol. 42, pp. 71–75, September 2006.
[5] He Guiping, Hu Chibing, Sha Chenghai, Liang Zhimin, Zhang Ganxiu,
“The mathematical mode of non-circle gear and non-circle internal gear
for generating cutting and its graphics simulation,” Machinery Design &
Manufacture, vol. 6, pp. 8–10, December 2004.
[6] Wu Xutang,Wang Guihai. Non-circular Gear and Transmission with
(b) The conjugated gear Non-uniform Speed Ratio. Beijing: China Machine Press, 1997, pp.34–
42.

Figure 5. Machining simulating graph of gear set .