Chapter 970: The Defense Committee is definitely interested (first two chapters)
This kind of reducer is actually the product of the combination of the Russians and the Americans. The theory was proposed by the Russians in 47, but the actual invention was made by the Americans in 53, patented in 55, and publicly exhibited in 60.

The earliest practical application was in aerospace. This thing is small in size, has a large reduction ratio, precise transmission, and theoretically has zero backlash. It is perfect for aerospace applications where every gram of weight must be paid for.

Although it has the defect of low load, the aerospace industry these days does not have such a large load to drive.

On the other hand, if the planetary reducer is not accurate enough, this reducer can be used as a substitute. Its macro transmission structure looks almost the same as the planetary gear reducer.

As for the issue of patent fees...you'll have to ask Karl Lagerfeld.

Although this thing is not the newest, we have been under technological blockade for a long time. Not to mention the comrades in the Third Rolling Mill, even the comrades in the 60th Ministry of Machine Building who are specialized in this have never heard of it. After all, it was an exhibition in New York in , and they had almost no channels to access relevant information.

"Mr. Gao, this doesn't seem to be able to transmit." Although they don't understand it, they still know the basic requirements of transmission. These things don't seem to be close to each other, and it seems that the transmission can't be transmitted.

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, there is still something missing. Add this and you will be able to see it." He modified the thing on the inner circle that looked like a gear and drew it into an ellipse with a small difference in the major and minor axes. Now the teeth of the inner wheel meshed with the teeth of the outer circle in the direction of the major axis of the ellipse.

Then Gao Zhendong added a rotatable cam inside the inner ring. This cam is connected to the input shaft, and it is also the reason why the inner ring becomes elliptical. The inner ring is soft and connected to the output shaft. It is pushed by the cam to rotate around the outer ring. The outer ring has 2 more teeth than the inner ring. It is this 2-tooth difference that allows the inner wheel to rotate inside the outer ring, and there is a strict positive correlation between the speed of the inner wheel and the speed of the cam.

After listening to Gao Zhendong's introduction, the comrades from the 11th Ministry of Machinery also roughly understood the principle of this reducer: "This reducer is really good, but it may not last long, right?"

Gao Zhendong nodded: "Yes, the inner wheel of this is constantly deforming, so the material requirements are very high, and the lifespan is indeed not as long as that of ordinary planetary gear transmission. However, for some things, lifespan and cost are not the top priority. Moreover, the efficiency of this reducer is much lower than that of the planetary gear transmission, more than 70%."

The most important thing is whether it exists or not. Even if the lifespan is a little lower, as long as you can make it yourself, it will make a big difference. At most, you can just replace a few more. There are not many things that require this kind of precision these days.

As for transmission efficiency, it takes a back seat to precision.

The comrades of the third factory were very happy. As long as General Manager Gao could reduce the cost, it would be much easier for them to do their work. "Okay, General Manager Gao, let's organize some people and work on it to see if we can solve this reducer problem as soon as possible."

Unexpectedly, Gao Zhendong shook his head and said, "No, this thing was successfully developed at the Songjiang Textile Industry Institute last year. It's already available. Although it may not be applicable to your application, you can write a note and I'll sign it. You can coordinate with the Ministry and go to the Songjiang Textile Institute to learn from them. Then come back and improve it. This way, the process will be much faster."

This is a very interesting thing. The first harmonic reducer in China was developed by Songjiang Textile Institute, but other ministries and commissions had limited knowledge and application of it. As for the follow-up of Songjiang's reducer, it is estimated that it is not widely used, and the theory and subsequent products and applications have not been fully developed. The real development of harmonic reducers in China was already in the 80s.

But no matter what, Songjiang Textile Institute has the real thing in hand and has completed the research on the entire reducer. Whether it is imitation or self-developed, in short, they have some basic experience and technology. Through their involvement, the research difficulty of the comrades in the Third Factory and the Eleventh Ministry of Machinery can be greatly reduced.

"Really? That's great! Will they disagree?"

The comrades in charge of machine tools were overjoyed at this unexpected surprise. They had not expected that they already had a real machine. It seemed that Chief Engineer Gao not only had profound technical skills, but also had a wide range of knowledge about the development status of various industries in the country and had a lot of experience in his mind.

However, whether they agree to share the technology is another matter.

This problem does exist. Gao Zhendong thought about it and said with a smile: "This should be no problem. The whole country is on the same page. But in order to explain the importance of this matter to the comrades over there, how about this? You send the application over first. After our two departments sign it, I will take it to the Defense Work Committee to sign it as well. They will need it."

The most famous applications of harmonic reducers in China are probably in two aspects: one is robots, which is the most popular and widespread, but is still relatively far away. The other is our spacecraft, naturally, including satellites.

For the National Defense Work Committee, it would be fine if they didn’t know about this thing, but once they knew about it, they would definitely hope to be able to use it.

This type of reducer has a small size and a large transmission ratio. The motor, reducer, and output shaft can be integrated in a coaxial arrangement. It is very easy to use in the weightless environment of space. Although weightlessness does not mean losing mass, the advantages of this transmission machine are enough to attract everyone, and it also covers up its weakness of small load capacity to the greatest extent.

This type of reducer was first used in space by Citibank. Citibank carefully selected it and it is trustworthy within the 20th century. Gao Zhendong once suspected that the way our satellites arranged solar panels in the early days was often to stick them in a circle around the satellite. This may be due to the fact that the technology of solar panel deployment and control mechanism in space is not up to standard. In any case, in theory, half of the panels will not work, and most of the working parts cannot work in the direction of the best solar radiation. If the technology is up to standard, this structure will never be used. Of course, this technical level is not only about transmission, but also about spacecraft attitude control technology.

As for whether the harmonic transmission machine of Songjiang Textile Industry Institute can really meet the needs, Gao Zhendong doesn't care. This is just a way for comrades to understand and master the harmonic transmission machine as quickly as possible. If the spot product is not suitable, the harmonic transmission principle and design in Gao Zhendong's hand will be the ultimate killer.

When the comrades heard that Gao Zhendong had brought out the Defense Working Committee, they felt relieved. The matter was settled. All the comrades knew what the Defense Working Committee represented in those days.

"Okay, Chief Engineer Gao, we'll get back to work on this. What is the second transmission mechanism you mentioned?"

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "Have you heard of the cycloid transmission machine?"

The cycloid pinwheel is also a planetary transmission mechanism, but it is more special. Apart from the complicated principle, its performance is less accurate than that of the harmonic transmission machine, but it has higher load and transmission efficiency, and also has the characteristics of large transmission ratio and small size.

Compared with planetary gear transmission, this product has much higher precision, and compared with harmonic transmission, this product has better load and efficiency. It can be said that the comprehensive performance is quite excellent and the application range is very wide.

However, the disadvantage of this thing is that it is difficult to manufacture and requires high manufacturing precision, because it is a hard-to-hard collision, and the harmonic transmission machine has a circle of soft teeth that can be made to fit by deformation.

The history of this thing is longer than that of the harmonic reducer. It was proposed in 1926, but it was not studied in China until the 60s.

"I have heard of this, but the manufacturing requirements are very high. We have not learned the relevant technology and theory, so it is difficult to enter this field."

For them, they have only heard about it, but the specific characteristics and advantages have not been clearly understood by the Chinese themselves, and they are still exploring where to use it.

Gao Zhendong smiled and said, "If you haven't learned it, go and learn it. You must have done some research in the 11th Ministry of Machinery. You should learn it as quickly as possible first. After you master the basic framework, I will figure out the remaining theories and key points. As for manufacturing, you can use harmonic deceleration to achieve accuracy, and then use this accuracy to make a cycloid pinwheel. Let's do it step by step. Moreover, this thing is a foundation. Behind it, there is a more interesting transmission mechanism."

Gao Zhendong decided to make the Japanese suffer.

The cycloid pinwheel is a good thing, not only for machine tools, but also for heavy-duty joints of robots, engineering machinery, etc. And there is a killer weapon behind it, but that thing is too advanced, so let's put it aside for now.

Hearing Chief Engineer Gao taking on the responsibility again, the comrades felt relieved. Chief Engineer Gao had already said that there was nothing to worry about.

I have never heard of Chief Engineer Gao ever giving a blank exam. As long as there is a chance to learn, it's good. Learning is a normal thing for them. In order to operate this CNC machine tool, many comrades first read Chief Engineer Gao's "Principles of Automatic Control".

As soon as Gao Zhendong left, the comrades from the 11th Ministry of Machine Building and the Third Factory immediately became busy. On the one hand, they were responsible for contacting their own departments to implement the cycloid pinwheel issue, and on the other hand, they were responsible for submitting application reports related to the harmonic reducer to the three ministries.

Time waits for no one, every minute and every second is precious.

Gao Zhendong himself is very satisfied with this. Although machine tools are not like other things that seem to be not very high-tech, there are actually many technical difficulties in the details. This progress is very good.

At the same time, the machine tool itself is extremely important and can be regarded as one of the most important branches of basic production tools.

Gao Zhendong has seen the linkage between their computer-aided design (CAD) software and machine tools. Although the accuracy cannot be achieved, at least the shapes of simple parts can be made consistent, and CAM (computer-aided manufacturing) is showing some signs of improvement.

Compared with the Internet and other things, at this stage, the effects of CAD and CAM are more immediate.

(End of this chapter)