Design of Reactionless Mechanisms Without Counter-rotations

Abstract

This chapter presents methods and principles used for balancing of planar mechanisms without counter-rotations. The fundamentals of balancing are described at first. Balancing only by counterweights provides only the force balance of mechanisms. Several basic methods which balance linkages by internal mass redistribution or adding of counterweights are introduced. These methods are the principal vector method, linearly independent vector method, complex mass method, and linear momentum method. The principles of these methods are explained in the example of the four-bar linkage and some extensions and important outcomes of these methods are added.