AN IMPROVED COMPLEX MASS METHOD FOR FORCE BALANCING OF PLANAR LINKAGES

An improvement to the Complex Mass Method for force balancing of planar linkages is presented. This is based upon a simplified approach to the determination of the mass flow in a linkage which illustrates how the mass of each link is transferred to the ground so as to obtain a fixed total mass centre. The new method not only retains the advantage of the Complex Mass Method by avoiding the necessity for formulating an expression for the total mass centre of the linkage, but also produces balancing equations of a general form which is independent of the choice of links which have their mass redistributed. Moreover, force balancing of any linkage can be accomplished rapidly using a simple step-by-step procedure based on the mass flow diagram.