Design Consideration for Precise Cable Drive
A brief overview of previously built Electro-Optical Tracking system reveals a trend toward smaller, more agile systems. Steel cable drive technology is an alternative to gearbox, belt and pulleys, chains and sprocket and other currently available transmission for several significant advantages, which includes backlash free, high stiffness, high efficiency, no lubrication etc.. As a new type of drive form, there were several key tradeoffs for the cable drive application, which will be developed and subjected in detail in this paper. Firstly Transmission principle and properties of cable drive is studied. Secondly, related design considerations of cable drive will be implemented and researched in detail, including the cable selection and capstan design, cable-groove matching strategy and cable tensioning design. Finally, actual application example of precise steel cable drive is presented for an Electro-Optical tracking gimbals, and performances tested validate the significant advantages of precise cable drive technology.