An Efficient Buffering Mechanism for Mechanical Capturing Systems

Before implementing a mechanical capturing/coupling process between structures, collision occurs inevitably and the motion characteristics of a system may be significantly affected. The short time duration and the large force generated by impact leads to make the motion instability as well as to keep some probable embedded subsystems unprotected. To do this, it is aimed to propose an effective probe-cone buffering mechanism with capacity of impact energy dissipation in this article. To reduce the impact force and to provide the required protection of systems, probe including spherical tip mass is mounted on the active structure by the proposed buffer and cone on the passive one, as well. The kinetic effect of the tip mass is also investigated as an effective parameter on the proposed mechanism. By an example problem, the theoretical impact model is verified by data reported in the literature. Then, a virtual model is built by a commercial multibody dynamics analysis software to verify theoretical results and develop the proposed buffer. It will be shown herein that the proposed mechanism takes some advantages such as providing a remarkable decreasing effect on impact compared to the traditional rigid probe and performing the successful capture process in different coupling scenarios