Mechanical Design 101 » Linkage Animations

Adjustable spinal implant

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:59:03 +0000

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Brandon Tsuge and Tim Rasmussen developed this concept for an adjustable spinal implant. The six-bar linkage provides 5mm of movement to accommodate a patient’s adaptation to the implant.

Instrument for spinal implant

admin — Thu, 03 May 2012 03:44:34 +0000

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This instrument is a six-bar linkage designed to separate vertebral segments for manipulation of a spinal implant. This design concept was developed by Brandon Tsuge and Tim Rasmussen.

Mechanism Generator 3.0

admin — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 01:20:34 +0000

Our Mechanism Generator 3.0 software reads a SolidWorks sketch of a planar 3R chain that reaches five task positions and computes a set of Watt 1 six-bar linkages that approximate movement through the task positions within specified tolerances. An animation previewer shows how each linkage moves. Select one and MechGen 3 generates a solid model of the linkage.

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is more excellent work from the team of Alex Arredondo and Kastubh Sonawale.

**Update: This video has been revised to provide a preview at the beginning that shows the six-bar linkage that is designed using MechGen 3.

Rice Transplanter

admin — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 05:34:28 +0000

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This rice transplanter selects seedlings from the hopper and plants them into the ground using a four-bar linkage designed by Mark Plecnik.

5SS Spatial Steering Linkage

admin — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 23:34:55 +0000

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Mark Plecnik designed this spatial 5SS steering linkage to increase the track and increase the camber as the vehicle turns.

Mechanism Generator 2.0 (MechGen 2)

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 07:46:04 +0000

We have a trial version of our Mechanism Generator 2.0 software available. MechGen 2 reads five task positions of a moving part in SolidWorks and generates a set of linkages that approximate the positions within specified tolerances. An animation previewer shows how each linkage moves. Select one and MechGen 2 generates the solid model of the linkage.

This video demonstrates the operation of MechGen 2:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This is the result of excellent work by Alex Arredondo and Kaustubh Sonawale.

Folding movement for wings for the Icon A5

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:49:28 +0000

This spherical four-bar linkage concept by Kaustubh Sonawale guides the wings of the Icon A5 in the movement shown in the animation.

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Spherical linkage concept to fold a wing

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:38:12 +0000

This is a spherical four-bar linkage concept by Kaustubh Sonawale designed to fold the wings of an Icon A5 small aircraft.

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Spare tire deployment linkage

admin — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:27:36 +0000

Kaustubh Sonawale designed this four-bar linkage to move a truck spare tire from a stowed position to the deployed position.

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Revised Three-panel Hardtop Convertible Linkage

admin — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:02:50 +0000

Oscar Alonso replaced the parallelogram drive linkages of the three-panel Volve C70 hardtop convertible with quadrilateral linkages, so it deploys farther and stows more compactly. The wheelbase of this vehicle approaches that of the Mercedes CL500. He used our Mathematica linkage synthesis notebook and our Mechanism Generator add-in for SolidWorks.

Click here to view the embedded video.