Abstract
As a basic study for the establishment of the methodology for computer aided or automated design of machine structures, this report deals with a method of graphical description of the functional structures of power transmitting or motion transmitting machines, such as machine tools, measuring apparatus, etc. The machines are considered as an aggregation of motion transmitting elements, such as gear mechanism, screw driving mechanism, cam mechanism, etc. and their functional structures are graphically described using these elements. In this topological graph, the nodes correspond to motion transmitting elements and the edges correspond to relations between two elements such as fixed or motion transmitting. In addition, two fundamental motions, which are the input and output motions of the element are attached to each node. A gear shaper is selected as an example of graphical description of machine structure, and its fundamental motion graph and basic graph are presented.
