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Tutorial 2: Mechanism of a Fourbar Linkage

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering 22.321 Mechanical Design I
Written By: Xiang Li
Revised by: Nick Cleveland 9/7/11
Objectives:
After completing the first tutorial and creating all of the required parts for a fourbar linkage
we can now create an assembly. For a fourbar linkage you should have part files for a base
plate, crank, coupler, and output link. The movable assembly allows us to configure a
motion analysis and to observe the linkage in action.
After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:
Build mechanisms with connections
Convert unmovable assemblies into movable assemblies
Simulate assembly movement using the drag functionality
Describe the purpose of servo motors
Create servo motors
Configure motion analysis with one servo motors
Create static images and movies of your motion runs
Create trace curves
Measure and display plots
Task 1: Creating a fourbar linkage.
The first step in mechanism design is to simulate assembly motion. By assembling the
movable components using connections, you can create a movable system instead of one
rigid body.
1. Start Pro/E Wildfire 5.0 Start -> All Programs -> Pro Engineer -> Pro
Engineer
Click OK if any errors pop up to continue.
2. Set working directory where you save the parts File -> Set Working Directory
3. Click File->New->Assembly, enter Linkage as the name and click OK
4. Click Insert->Component->Assemble or , and select the base part file that
you created earlier and open it.
5. A toolbar will popup at the top of the window. The first pull down menu should say
User Defined. Change the second pull down menu to Default and click the
green arrow. Change the orientation of the plate to get a better view of the hole
locations for assembly (Figure 1).
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Figure1 Base part
6. Click Insert->Component->Assemble or , and select the crank part file and
open it. (shown in Figure 2)
Figure 2 Base and crank
7. Change the first pull down menu to Pin . Make sure the connection is
Connection_1. To check this, click on the Placement tab. To change the name of the
connection, click the Placement tab and select the name of the connection. When
selected, a small renaming box will appear to the right of the name.
8. Zoom in and select the two surfaces as shown in Figure 3.
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Figure 3 Selecting surfaces to make a connection
9. Spin the model and select the other two surfaces, as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 Selecting surfaces to complete the definition of the connection
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10. If your result look similar to Figure 5, click the green arrow. If not click Cancel and
repeat step 6-10. If the part is upside down, click the Flip button in the Placement
tab next to Constraint type.
Figure 5 Completed base and crank connection
11. Click Insert->Component->Assemble or , and select the coupler part file and
open it.
12. Make connections by following the same steps as 7-10 to connect the crank to the
coupler. Check that the connection name is updated for each new connection. At this
point, it should be connection_2. If it is not, click the name to edit it. The connection
TYPE should be Pin.
13. Click OK when you are satisfied with the connection, or Cancel to start over.
14. Click Insert->Component->Assemble or , and select the output rocker part
file and open it.
15. Make connections by following the same steps as 7-10 to connect the output
rocker to the coupler and base plate. This will require two connections, the first is
connection_3. The connection TYPE should be Pin.
16. When the 3
rd
connection is defined click New Set at the bottom of the Placement
window to start connection_4. The connection TYPE should be Pin.
17. The result looks similar to Figure 6.
Figure 6 Assembled fourbar linkage
18. Click OK
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Task 2: Drag the mechanism
1. Select Applications->Mechanism
2. Click from the top toolbar, and click anywhere on the crank.
3. Move the mouse to check out the motion of this fourbar linkage.
4. Click Close to finish.
Task 3: Defining Servo Motor
As part of your mechanism analysis, you can use a servo motor to study the kinematic
behavior.
1. Click from the right toolbar.
Select
this axis
Figure 7 Axis selection for servo motor
2. Select the axis shown in Figure 7.
3. Click the Profile tab [1], select Velocity [2] from the pull down menu, and set the
velocity to 360 deg/sec [3], as shown in Figure 8.
In the Type tab, you have to select geometry then change motion type to
Rotation from translation tab to change units from in/sec.
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Figure 8 Servo motor definition entries
4. Click Apply and OK.
Task 4: Run the motion analysis
1. Click from the right toolbar.
2. Set the values as shown in Figure 9.
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Figure 9 Analysis definition entries
3. Click Run. As you can see, the linkage is moving.
4. Click OK.
Task 5: Playback of Motion Analysis Results
1. In the model tree, expand Playbacks, right click AnalysisDefinition1, you can save
or play it.
2. Click Play. As seen in Figure 10, you can view the animation or save the animation
as a movie by clicking the button.
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Figure 10 Animation options
Task 6: Trace Curve of Motion Analysis Results
To provide a plot of the displacement of a point on the coupler, we must first add a point to
the coupler part file.
1. Open the coupler part file.
2. Click the arrow on the
Datum Point Tool.
button in the right tool box and select the Sketch
3. The Sketch Datum Point dialog box appears. Click on a line on the coupler
and click Ok.
4. Click the Create geometric points button in the right tool box (inside the tab).
5. Click on somewhere along the center of the link, as shown in Figure 11.
Figure 11 Point located along center of link
6. Click the middle button to exit the Create points command. Double click on the
dimension from the hole (as seen in Figure 11) and edit it to locate the point at the
center of the coupler link.
7. Save the sketch, exit the sketch and Save the file.
8. Return to the Linkage assembly and regenerate the assembly by clicking the
button on the top tool box menu.
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9. Click to show the points. The point you created on the coupler should appear.
10. From the top menu, select Insert ->Trace curves.
11. Refer to Figure 12. On the Trace Curve menu, select the base as the Paper Part [1]
and then pick the point you created [2], open and select AnalysisDefinition1 [3] and
then click Preview [4]. Click OK [5] to finish.
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Figure 12 Trace Curve menu selections
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Task 7: Measure of Motion Analysis Results
1. Click from the right toolbar.
Figure 13 Measure results
2. Click to add a measure definition. Follow the steps in Figure 14.
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Figure 14 Selections for measure definition
3. Select X component of your point and AnalysisDefinition1 and click .
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Figure 15 Measure results
4. The plot shown should look similar to Figure 16.
Figure 16 Example results for motion analysis
5. In the Graphtool window, by clicking File->Export Excel, you can save the data to
open in Microsoft Excel and plot in Excel to take the displacement bias off.
6. In the similar way, you can plot the velocity and acceleration.