The force transmissivity index of planar linkage mechanisms

In this paper, a new force transmissivity index (FTI) of planar linkage mechanisms is proposed. The index is used to quantitatively measure the force transmission quality from the input link to an output link. Traditionally, the transmission angle is used to measure the ability to transmit motion for planar four-bar linkages. However, the transmission angle is usually limited to be used at four-bar linkages due to the structural simplicity. For complex multi-loop mechanisms, it is often difficult to define the force transmissivity. Here we have established a procedure of force transmissivity analysis for planar linkage mechanisms. The method is based on the static force analysis and the concept of power flow path. It is found that the force transmissivity of a mechanism depends not only on the configurations of the mechanism, but also on the selection of the output link and the forms of the loading. We have compared the results based on the FTI with the results from the Jacobian matrix method and the joint force index (JFI) method for four-bar mechanisms. It shows that the proposed FTI can describe the force transmission performance more accurately than other methods do. It is concluded that the index can be used as a better measure of force transmissivity analysis for planar linkage mechanisms.