Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 機械工程系 === 98 === This thesis deals with the creative design of the folding mechanism for foldable baby carriages. Based on safety consideration, the major design criterion used in this research is to make the folding mechanism to reach a particular dead center position at its fully opened configuration. A patent search of such mechanisms is first conducted and it is found that the dead center configuration has not been effectively adopted in the contemporary designs. By restricting the type of the mechanism to single degree of freedom six-bar linkages, three possible designs which would satisfy the given design criteria have been synthesized, and a method for detecting branch defects of these mechanisms is developed. The kinematic constraints of these mechanisms are then derived based on the vector loop closure equations and geometric configurations of the dead-center positions imposed at the two end points. In addition, a method for computing the operating torques of the mechanisms is developed according to the principle of virtual work. Finally, the optimal dimensions of the mechanisms are synthesized by using the genetic optimization algorithm such that the synthesized mechanism would not only give the minimum storage space but also require the minimum torque to operate. By comparing the results of the numerical examples among the three possible designs, the best one is identified and a prototype of which is produced to verify the proposed methods.
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