Surface texturing design and friction reduction characteristics of pins in RV reducers

QIAO Chunmin; WEI Bingyang; XU Jiake; GONG Linhuan

doi:10.16578/j.issn.1004.2539.2026.06.004

Abstract：[Objective]The pin-cycloid pair in RV reducers for robots suffers from severe wear and short precision life under high loads.A surface texturing design scheme for pin teeth was proposed to improve their friction reduction and wear resistance performance.[Methods]Firstly,a three-dimensional lubrication calculation model for pin surface texture was established based on the Navier-Stokes equations to provide support for fluid simulation analysis.Secondly,the oil film pressure distributions of circular,pentagonal and square textures under oil-immersed lubrication were compared using Fluent software to determine the optimal texture morphology.Then,an L9(33)orthogonal test was conducted to analyze the influence laws of depth-width ratio,area density and inclination angle on friction reduction characteristics and optimize the geometric parameters of the texture.Finally,test verification was carried out using a self-made friction and wear testing machine.[Results]The results show that the square texture generates the maximum positive oil film pressure and exhibits the best friction reduction effect.The identified optimal parameter combination is a depth-width ratio of 0.2,an area density of 10%and an inclination angle of 0°.Under this configuration,the oil film bearing capacity of the pin surface is significantly improved,and the wear loss is reduced by up to 69.23%compared with the non-textured surface.The effectiveness of surface texturing in reducing friction on pin teeth of RV reducers is verified.Reference is provided for the friction reduction design of RV reducer pin teeth.