Bevel gears tooth contact pattern verification

Purpose This paper aims to create an application to support spiral bevel gear contact pattern verification in the computer aided design (CAD) system to speed up the selection of technological setups for the cutting machine by finding these in the virtual environment at the design level. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an application which has been created to simulate a pattern check on spiral bevel gears in the virtual environment. The pattern check is conducted on the CAD models obtained from the cutting simulation in the CAD system using technological settings calculated by the KONTEPS system. Check of the contact pattern in the virtual environment works in the same way as in the real production process. The application has been written in C# programming language and run in the NX open environment in the UG NX. Findings This paper shows the possibilities of how the CAD system can be used at the design level of spiral bevel gears to verify an unloaded tooth contact pattern position for applied technological setups for dedicated cutting machine. Practical implications This paper describes an application that has the possibility to be implemented in small companies which produce small lots of gear sets and help to decrease the time for setting a cutting machine. Originality/value This paper addresses the needs to find new technologies to improve the design process of the spiral bevel gears.