Non-probabilistic kinematic reliability analysis of planar mechanisms with non-uniform revolute clearance joints

Owing to the inevitable phenomena in which the wear of a revolute joint is non-uniform and severely affects the output motion accuracy, a conservative and efficient motion accuracy evaluation of mechanisms considering non-uniform wear is required by designers. Hence, this paper presents an integrated non-probabilistic kinematic analysis of precision mechanisms with non-uniform wear in joint by combining multi-body dynamic analysis, wear prediction and kinematic reliability analysis. The presented accuracy measurement and corresponding solution strategy can be used as the objective or constraint in dimensional synthesis to realise a longer service life. The non-uniform clearance is quantified by unknown but bounded variables, the boundary of which is expressed by the B-spline function. Furthermore, the kinematic reliability is calculated based on the non-probabilistic interval interference model. Two numerical examples consisting of wear prediction, motion error quantification, and reliability evaluation are presented to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the developed methodology. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.