Abstract
The existence of clearance at the link joint of a machine is inevitable for assembly and mobility. During the cyclic operation of a machine, rapid changes of the direction and magnitude of connection forces cause momentary loss of contact between the pin and the bushing at the link joint. Contact loss at the clearance joint gives rise to undesirable impact. The impulsive force affects on the performance of the machine, and leads to excessive vibration, noise and faster wear in the connecitons. In this paper, experiment and theoretical analysis were carried out for the variation of crank speed and clearance size. The link mechanism employed in this investigation was newly designed to check the effects of parameter changes on the occurrence of contact loss and on the magnitude of the impact force. The contact loss and impact position were calculated with various driving conditions.
