Design of Geneva Mechanism with Curved Slots

摘要

A simple yet comprehensive method is proposed for the design of a Geneva indexing mechanism with curved slots. In the proposed approach, conjugate surface theory is employed to derive an analytical description of the profile of the curved slots with and without an offset feature. The use of an appropriate offset angle to eliminate the singular points and double-points on the profile of the curved slots is then demonstrated. Finally, a mock-up Geneva mechanism is constructed to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach. The results confirm that the methodology presented in this study enables the integration of the design, analysis and machining tasks for a Geneva indexing mechanism, and therefore makes possible a flexible and automatic production process.