Energy-free adjustment of gravity equilibrators by adjusting the spring stiffness

Static balancing is a useful concept to reduce the operating effort of mechanisms. Spring mechanisms are used to achieve a constant total potential energy, thus eliminating any preferred position. Quasi-statically, the mechanism, once statically balanced, can be moved virtually without the operating...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers. Part C, Journal of mechanical engineering science Journal of mechanical engineering science, 2008-09, Vol.222 (9), p.1839-1846
Main Authors: van Dorsser, W D, Barents, R, Wisse, B M, Schenk, M, Herder, J L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Balancing
Coiling
Coils
Energy
Energy consumption
Friction
Gravitation
Gravity
Mathematical models
Potential energy
Stiffness
Weight
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Summary:Static balancing is a useful concept to reduce the operating effort of mechanisms. Spring mechanisms are used to achieve a constant total potential energy, thus eliminating any preferred position. Quasi-statically, the mechanism, once statically balanced, can be moved virtually without the operating energy. In some cases, it is desirable to adjust the characteristic of the balancer, for instance, due to a change in the payload in a gravity balanced mechanism. The adjustment of current static balancers requires significant operating energy. This paper will present a novel variant to adjust the spring- and linkage-based static balancers without the need for external energy. The variant makes use of the possibility to adjust the spring stiffness in an energy-conserving way by adjusting the number of active coils. The conditions under which it functions properly will be given, and a proof of the concept model will be shown.
ISSN:0954-4062
2041-2983
DOI:10.1243/09544062JMES832