International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

Main directions and trends of mechanism and machine mechanics developing in Belarus are considered. Results of investigations fulfilled in the Joint Institute of Mechanical Engineering and V.A. Bely Metal Polymer Research Institute of NASB, Belarusian National Technical and Belarusian-Russian Universities, as well as in Belarusian State Transport University and other Belarusian research centers are presented. Generally, these investigations are forwarded for modernization of drives of various machines and mechanisms, including mobile machines, instrument mechanisms and estimation of their operation characteristics in the frame of “Industry 4.0” conception. The paper is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on gears and powertrains. Parts of the paper contain sources of information and main publications of Belarusian scientists. Thus, the paper as a whole bears informational and bibliographic character

A review of the retrospective and modern state in the field of theory and practice of plastic gears is presented. Various aspects of such gears design, technology and applications are discussed. It is noted that corresponding problems are under considerationpermanently on the last common engineering meetings and specialized ones. The analysis of the papers allows to conclude that main trends in plastic gears are the following once: comparison the experimental results with VDI 2736 and JIS 1759 normative paper data; development of the methods of accelerated tests; investigation on fatigue bending strength, pitting and wear resistance; improvement of the noise, vibration and harshness behaviors; analysis and optimization of reinforced composite materials structure; application of additive technologies; fabrication of high precise plastic gears and development of computer-aided design methodology.

The main features of creating an information model (Digital Twin) for a technically complicated item are formulated. These include: a multitude of systemic representations of the item, individualization of its behavior and state under specific operating conditions, fatal uncertainty in the description of component properties, reconstruction of data based on sensors readings, individual lifetime expense in operation. Above features are illustrated by authors’ developments in application to power transmissions. The key issues of synthesis, calculation, design and diagnostics of transmissions based on the created complex of lifetime-and-functional models are solved. Transmission is considered as a multicomponent system with a variable structure and states. Creating a single universal model to reproduce basic properties of the technically complicated item is impossible. Principles of constructing models and methods for calculating, monitoring and predicting functional and lifetime properties are described. The basic representations of the transmission (structure, regular mechanical system, kinematic and dynamic diagrams, diagnostic model, schemes of limiting states, lifetime expense model) and the mathematical models serving them are developed. The approaches considered are methodologically typical for complex mechanical and combined objects based on mechanical systems.