The design of binary cranks with revolute, cylindric, and prismatic joints

Abstract Using screw-axis geometry, the synthesis of cranks with prismatic joints is discussed and equations are derived for the design of spatial cranks with one revolute and one cylindric joint, or two revolute joints. These new formulations, coupled with previous work on the multi-position synthesis of cylindric-cylindric links [1], complete and unify the design theory for all binary cranks with joints that are either revolutes, sliders, or cylinders. All such binary cranks are designed to be compatible with a specified set of finitely separated positions of a rigid body which they couple to a fixed link. It has been previously shown [2] that results of this type are applicable to a large number of different multi-position spatial synthesis problems.