When a circle rolls on the circumference of another
circle, each point on the rolling circle can describe a curve, called
the cycloidal curve. If the circle rolls
outside another circle, the describing curve is an epicycloid;
if the circle rolls inside another circle, the describing curve is
a hypocycloid. The cycloidal curves are
commonly applied in the generation of gear tooth profiles and the
design of displacement curves of cam mechanisms. It has the advantages
of no interference and undercutting
problems for gear design and having smoother acceleration curves,
compared with simple harmonic motion curve,
for cam design. The shown mechanism is used to demonstrate an application
of the cycloidal curves. It consists of a spur gear pair, a connecting
rod, a driving crank, and a frame. The internal gear is served as
the frame; the external gear is driven by the input crank which is
located behind the model; the connecting rod is connected to the external
gear on its pitch circle with a revolute joint and is adjacent to
the frame with a prismatic joint. Since the radius of the pitch
circle of the internal gear is double of that of the
external gear, the center of the connecting joint on the pitch circle
of the external gear will draw a straight line along the diameter
of the pitch circle of the internal gear. Hence, when the external
gear is driven, the connecting rod is forced to reciprocally slide
on the frame. Since the external gear rolls inside the internal gear,
the generating straight line belongs to a hypocycloid.