Gear Basics

The purpose of this section of the literature review is to gain an understanding of the basics of gear contact and the nomenclature used in the gear industry. Works by Shigley (1), Stokes (2) and Ewert (3) are used as references for information on the subject. Below is a graphical representation of a spur gear and the terms present will be described further.

Figure 1 - Diagram of gear pair with notations from www.engineersedge.com

Firstly it must be noted that within a gear pair the term pinion is often prescribed to the smaller of the two mating gears where the term gear is given to the larger. Pitch Circle - in a gear pair the pitch circle is the imaginary circle which rolls without slip, such that if you imagined a gear pair as two disks with a single point of contact the diameter of the disks would be the pitch circle diameter (d or D). This can be seen in Figure 1. Theoretical calculations are usually based on the pitch circle. Circular pitch (p) - circular pitch is the distance measured on the pitch circle between any two similar points on adjacent teeth. It can be calculated from the number of teeth ( N) and the pitch circle diameter (d) in the form . With , where m is the module, this gives

Module ratio of the pitch diameter to the number of teeth Addendum radial distance between the pitch circle and the top land. Dedendum this is the radial distance between the pitch circle and the bottom land/root circle. It should be intuitive to note that the addendum of one gear in a pair should not be larger the dedendum of the other pinion since this would cause the gear tooth to imbed into the pinion body. This is also true with a larger addendum on the pinion, where the pinion tooth would imbed into the gear body.

Clearance circle this is a circle which is tangent to the addendum circle on the mating gear; it has a clearance (radial distance from the bottom land), which is equal to the difference between the dedendum of the gear in question and the addendum of the mating gear. Base Circle the circle on which the involute profile of the teeth is generated, with radius Rb.

Base Pitch (pb) distance between two adjacent involutes, measured along the circumference of the base circle. This is calculated as the circumference of the base circle divided by the number of teeth.

Backlash this is the difference between the circular thickness and the width of space between teeth. Face Width this is the length of the teeth in the axial direction. Line of Action also known as the pressure line, this is the line on which all contact occurs, with the force vector between mating teeth running along this line. The angle the pressure line makes with the horizontal plane in Figure 1 is known as the pressure angle (). Usually the pressure line and angle will vary in operation unless there is perfect conjugate action. Contact Ratio In its broadest description the contact ratio is the average number of pairs of teeth in contact. Its derivation and mathematical description are given below. As previously discussed it is assumed that all contact occurs along the pressure line between two points where the addendums of the two mating gears intersect. By taking the point at which meshing occurs as a, and the point where meshing ends as b, two more points can be obtained. These are taken along the involute profile at the pitch circle and are given the symbols A and B as shown in Figure 2 with P as the pitch point. Also shown in Figure 2 are the Arc of Approach (AP) and Recess (PB), which when summed gives the Arc of Action (qt). From this information it is now possible to define and calculate the contact ratio with the use of the circular pitch (p). The contact ratio is now defined as the ratio of the Arc of Action to the circular pitch.

b B P
Addendum Circle

A a

Pitch Circle

Figure 2 - Gear Contact

An alternative method is to use the length of the line of action (Lab) and the base pitch (pb) which is taken as

Conjugate Action of Mating Gears

For perfect conjugate action some assumptions must be made, which include the teeth to be perfectly smooth and rigid involutes. The term conjugate refers to the angular velocities of two gears in mesh and conjugate action occurs when these velocities remain constant throughout the meshing cycle. In theory any combination of profiles for the teeth could be used to obtain conjugate action however the involute profile provides a good solution which is commonly used in gear design. It has been mentioned previously that gear contact occurs along the pressure line, which also happen s to be the line where the involute surfaces are tangent to each other, another definition of contact.

The Involute Profile

To produce an involute profile a line can be traced by unwinding a string from a cylinder, in the case of the gears this cylinder is the base circle. At any point during this unwinding it can be seen that the generating line (string at that point) is at a tangent with the cylinder and is normal to the involute curve. If two involute profiles were in contact it could also be seen that the generating lines would be tangent to both cylinders, which is the same as the pressure line. Mathematically the involute curve is taken from

R = Radius to any point on the involute. = Angle from start of involute to radius R. = Angle through which string has been unwound. With the generating line length equal to the base circle subtended by the angle such that and also the length of the circumference of

And through substitution

This allows the plotting of the involute curve in polar coordinates (R,). It is common to write the angle as a function of the pressure angle () in the form Where Inv is the Involute function, whose value is tabulated in many books for different gears. This can then be used in many calculations such as the determination of tooth thickness (Ti) at different radii, using the equations below.

With

r = radius = pressure angle T = tooth thickness Subscript 1, 2 = Given value, interested value.

Another useful equation that can be calculated from the Involute function is the radius at which the tooth becomes a point (r2) from the equations

Where 2 is the pressure angle at the tooth tip.

Interference
Interference occurs when the teeth come into contact before the theoretically calculated positions (intersection point between the addendum circle of one gear, base circle of the mating gear and the pressure line). Interference can also occur in gears leaving mesh after the ideal position. Practically this indicates that contact is occurring between the tip of one tooth and the flank of the other, and hence contact is not occurring on the involute profile. The effect of interference is usually that during mesh commencement the tip/face of the driven gear digs out the noninvolute portion of the driver. At the end of the mesh cycle the opposite occurs and the driver digs into the driven gears flank.

Dynamic Effects
When two gears are running at high speed it is found that the load experienced by those gears is increased. In an attempt to quantify this, experiments were carried out where gears were tangentially loaded to failure under zero velocity and then loaded to failure at a specific pitchline velocity (velocity along the line of action). The ratio of the static load at failure to the dynamic load at failure was taken as the Velocity factor (Kv). This means that an identical gear pair running at this speed would have a dynamic load equal to Kv times the static tangential load. The American Gear Manufacturers Association (AGMA) paper ANSI/AGMA 2001-D04 currently classifies the dynamic factor (Kv) as

With

Qv is the transmission accuracy-level numbers which is replaced by Av in 2004, and is taken from the paper ANSI/AGMA 2015-1-A01. Av ranges from 6-12, with lower numbers representing greater accuracy. In these equations V is the pitch line velocity in SI units (ms-1).