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INTRODUCTION The sole intention of this experiment is to gain in-depth details of a four bar chain mechanism. The four bar chain is a very important mechanism where relative motion can occur between adjoining links. This mechanism is widely used in real life applications due to the fact that lot of variations could be obtained by altering the lengths of the link. A four bar linkage consists of four rigid members on which the input motion is applied is known as the crank. The output motion link is known as the follower and the middle link which connects both follower and crank is known as the coupler. The fourth link is known as a frame which is fixed. Also it was identified from the Grueblers equation that it has a degree of freedom of one. According to the arrangements of the links, four bar linkages could be divided into different types of groups. There are four main types of link arrangements such as the, Parallelogram linkage, crank rocker linkage, drag linkage and double rocker linkage. Each of it has different characteristics of its own and has its own style of coupler curves. In parallelogram linkage the crank and the follower are of the same length and, coupler and the frame are of the same length. In the crank rocker linkage, crank can rotate through 360 but due to the length of the follower it can only rock or oscillate. The drag linkage is formed when both crank and the follower could rotate through 360. An important characteristic of this mechanism is that the follower has variable angular velocity for constant angular velocity of the crank. Finally in the double rocker linkage, neither the crank nor the follower can make a full rotation.

OBJECTIVE Main objectives of this experiment are to investigate a four bar chain and to find the linkages that ensure same input output relationship or coupler curve geometry. Also to come to an understanding of the times taken for the outstroke and in stroke via drawing graphs.

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SUMMARY A four bar chain was analyzed and the readings were recorder in a table as shown in Table 1. It was an easy experiment to understand but there were lot of readings to be taken. Initially a rocker length had to be set and the lengths of each component of the mechanism had to be measured using a ruler. Then by changing the crank angle by 10 intervals, its corresponding position of the rocker was measured. Then the distance O AD was measured using the extra link with the scale. VB was measured using the equation,

Where VA was assumed to be 1. This process was repeated until crank angle reached 360.

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RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS Table 1 - Readings from the experiment 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160 170 180 190 200 210 220 230 240 250 260 270 280 69 71 74 77 81 85 89 93 97 102 107 112 116 120 123 125 126 125 123 119 113 107 100 94 87 81 77 74 71 OAD (mm) 20 24 28 32 35 38 40 42 44 46 44 42 39 33 25 15 0 15 35 45 62 65 65 62 55 47 42 32 27 VB (mm/s) 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.875 0.95 1 1.05 1.1 1.15 1.1 1.05 0.975 0.825 0.625 0.375 0 0.375 0.875 1.125 1.55 1.625 1.625 1.55 1.375 1.175 1.05 0.82 0.675

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290 300 310 320 330 340 350 360

69 66 65 65 65 66 67 69

20 14 8 0 5 9 14 19

0.5 0.35 0.2 0 0.125 0.225 0.35 0.475

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Velocity vs Crank angle

1.8 1.625 1.6

1.4

1.2

1.15

Velocity (mm/s)

0.8

0.6 0.5 0.4 0.475

0.2

0 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360

Crank Angle ()
VB (mm/s)

Figure 1 - Velocity vs Crank Angle

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vs Crank Angle
160
150 140 130 120 110 100 90

80

70
60 50 40 30 20 10 0

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 220 240 260 280 300 320 340 360

Crank Angle ()

Figure 2 - vs Crank Angle

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Velocity vs
1.8
1.7 1.6 1.5 1.4 1.3 1.2

Velocity (mm/s)

1.1 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 0.4 0.3 0.2

1.15

0.1
0 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140

Y-Values

Figure 3 - Velocity vs

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From VB vs graph it could be found that the, VB has a maximum instroke value of 1.15 mm/s at 90 VB has a maximum outstroke value of 1.625 mm/s at 220 VB has zero velocity at both 160 and 320 Dead centre is the position of the mechanism when the rocker is at a limit position. Hence in this case the dead centre occurs when is at 160

Time ratio is usually calculated using the equation, TR = /360-. Hence from the VB vs graph it

was identified that,

Time ratio for instroke as 0.395 Time ratio for outstroke as 0.423 TR = 0.423/0.395 = 1.07

DISCUSSION As you can see the graph in figure 1 has the shape of a polynomial function. The initial velocity of B is at 0.5 mm/s and it reaches gradually upto 1.15 mm/s when the angle is at 90 then it slowly decreases to 0 mm/s when at the dead centre. Then when the rocker starts to move in opposite direction again the same process happens with a maximum velocity of 1.625 mm/s at 200 and it goes to 0 and again climbs up to 0.475 mm/s when the angle is 360. Graph in figure 3 has two quadratic shaped curves with maximum velocities at 1.15 mm/s and 1.625 mm/s. There are two identical curves is because of instoke and outstroke. There are few errors in the graphs such as velocity not coming to 0.5 mm/s in figure 1 and the maximum value for outsroke is at two points on the graph. These errors could be due to the mistakes made while taking readings off the scales in the four bar chain. Also there could be few

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machine errors. Even though the readings may not be that accurate we could come to a conclusion and get an idea on how the four bar chain mechanism works.

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REFERENCE World Wide Web Four Bar Mechanism, C.S. Kumar, Accessed March 04, 2014. http://vlabs.iitkgp.ernet.in/ Mechanism Basics, MIT class 6.S080, Accessed March 02, 2014. http://courses.csail.mit.edu/ Four Bar Mechanism, OCW press, Accessed March 02, 2014. http://ocw.metu.edu.tr/

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