Research on Mechanical Simulation Experiment and Assembly Technology for Large-size Circlip for Hole

Owing to space constraints and the lack of a dedicated gripper for compressing large-sized circlips for hole during automatic assembly of shell components, a study was conducted on the assembly technology for such circlips. Initially, the shrinkage effect of a circlip under two compression methods was analyzed using ABAQUS software. The simulation showed that for a circlip with a nominal diameter of 150mm, thickness of 2mm, and made of 65Mn material, applying a total compression of 10mm resulted in virtually identical shrinkage between symmetric and asymmetric compression methods along the line connecting the two small holes. However, in the direction perpendicular to the connecting line, symmetrical compression led to shrinkage values of 1.854mm and 1.746mm for each small hole, while asymmetrical compression caused one small hole to expand by 2.367mm, producing the opposite effect. Thus, it can be inferred that symmetrical compression yields more favorable shrinkage effects for circlips. Based on this conclusion, structural design modifications were made to develop a gripper specifically for large-sized circlips, including key components like the support structure, transmission structure, and clamping compression structure.