ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the application of elastic absorbers of manufacturing errors in the design of split torque gear trains. The focus is particularly on various designs of planetary gear drives, which perfect examples of gear trains with split torque. An epicyclic gear consists of three co-axial torque-carrying members, which, quite arbitrarily, can be input, output, or stationary reaction members. They are: a sun gear, which has external teeth; an annulus gear, which is a ring that has teeth on its inner surface; and a planetary carrier, which supports the bearing spindles of a number of identical planetary pinions that have external teeth. The mobility of a split torque transmission system can be calculated based on the principles used to determine the mobility of other mechanisms. In order to make a split torque transmission system nearly insensitive to manufacturing errors as well as to displacements of other natures, elastic load sharing devices (ELSDs) can be used.
