Profiling of a shaped worm cutter for shaping gears with non-involute tooth profile

Of the mechanical transmissions used in mechanical engineering, the most common are gears with an involute profile of the teeth flanks. Gears made up of such wheels have a number of advantages, but they also have a number of significant disadvantages. Therefore jne of the current trends is the study of gears with a complex non-involute profile of the teeth flank which have advantages over involute gears in a number of applications, as well as the development of tools for their processing. There are two ways of gear teeth cutting: the copying method and the rolling-in method. The rolling-in method has advantages. The profile of the tool working by the rolling-in method does not depend on the number of teeth of the gear being cut, therefore, the same tool can be used to cut gears with any number of teeth. The accuracy of a gear made by the rolling-in method is significantly higher than the accuracy of a gear made by the copying method. This is primarily due to the continuity of the rolling-in process. When cutting teeth by the rolling method, the tooth surface is formed as a result of processing with a tool, the cutting edges of which are the tooth profile of the mating rack or the tooth profile of the mating gear, and during processing the tool and the workpiece form a mating gear pair. The most common gear cutting tool is the hob cutter. For the machining of gear wheels with a non-involute tooth profile widely used in industry equipment is used. One of the options for a rolling gear cutting tool for shaping gear wheels with a non-involute tooth profile can be a shaped worm cutter. The article describes the method of profiling of the cutting part of shaped hob cutter for machining of gear wheels with normal accuracy. To solve the problem the unified mathematical base – the apparatus of multiparameter mappings of space – the unified structure of mappings for gears and a compact set of unified operators, parameters and functional connections is used.

A Novel Measurement Standard for Surface Roughness on Involute Gears

Although manufacturers of coordinate measurement systems and gear measurement systems already provide instruments that enable an end-of-line-monitoring of the roughness properties of gears, the roughness measurement on gear flanks still lacks traceability with respect to the standardised SI-units. There is still a gap between well standardised roughness measurements on planar surfaces and gear measurements on involutes. This gap is bridged by a novel physical measurement standard (PMS), also referred to as material measure, for roughness measurements on involute gears that has been developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB). The necessary transformations between the systems of roughness and gear measurements have been implemented. The measurement standard itself represents calibrated roughness values for the parameters Ra, Rz, Rq, Rk, Rpk and Rvk and Mr1 and Mr2. Furthermore, the PMS can be measured both with classic profilometers as well as gear measurement systems with integrated roughness probes.

Acoustical behavior of loss-optimized involute gears

The progressing electrification of vehicle drive systems focuses more and more on efficient high-speed concepts. Increasing the motor speed leads to a higher power density of the electrified power train and thereby to an increased range for battery electric vehicles. The high rotational speeds cause new challenges in designing gearboxes regarding the efficiency and the acoustical behavior. Most present gearings in conventional vehicles are designed with high tooth depths to ensure low noise excitation behavior combined with the best possible efficiency. By changing the gear geometry to smaller tooth depths with higher pressure angles, it is possible to further decrease gear losses. However, the loss-optimized gear geometry must not jeopardize the beneficial acoustical behavior. In theoretical studies, the acoustical behavior of loss-optimized gears are investigated and compared to gearings designed according to the state of the art. Design calculations of the excitations of all ideal gears without deviations are on similar levels. However, application of such gear geometries faces severe challenges because the sensitivity to manufacturing deviations may be high. In this paper, simulation results and test results between low-NVH gears and loss-optimized gears are documented and analyzed.

Oil Film Stiffness of Double Involute Gears Based on Thermal EHL Theory

Lubrication failure is one of the main failure forms of gear failure. Time varying meshing stiffness is an important factor affecting the dynamic behavior of gears. However, the influence of oil film stiffness is usually ignored in the research process. In this paper, according to the meshing characteristics of double involute gears, based on the non-Newtonian thermal EHL theory, a new calculation method of normal and tangential oil film stiffness for double involute gears is established by the idea of subsection method. The oil film stiffness difference between double involute gears and common involute gears is analyzed, and the influence of tooth waist order parameters, working conditions, and thermal effect on the oil film stiffness are studied. The results reveal that there are some differences between normal and tangential oil film stiffness between double involute gears and common involute gears, but there is little difference. Compared with the torque, rotation speed and initial viscosity of the lubricating oil, the tooth waist order parameters have less influence on the oil film stiffness. Thermal effect has a certain influence on normal and tangential oil film stiffness, which indicates that the influence of thermal effect on the oil film can not be ignored. This research proposes a calculation method of normal and tangential oil film stiffness suitable for double involute gears, which provides a theoretical basis for improving the stability of the transmission.

Operating Performance of External Non-Involute Spur˝and Helical Gears: A Review

In practical use, most gears have an involute shape of tooth flanks. However, external involute gears have some drawbacks, such as unfavourable kinematic conditions at the beginning and end of meshing, a limited minimum number of teeth, and the highly loaded convex-convex (i.e., non-conformal) contact. Researchers have developed and analysed various non-involute forms of tooth flanks, but they have not been widely accepted. The main reasons are higher manufacturing costs and sensitivity to manufacturing and assembly errors. Analyses of non-involute forms of teeth are mostly theoretical (analytical and numerical), while there is a lack of experimental confirmations of theoretical assumptions. This paper reviews external non-involute shapes, their operating characteristics and possibilities of use compared to involute gears. Established criteria, such as Hertzian pressure, oil film thickness, bending stress at the root of the tooth, contact temperature, and gear noise, were used for assessment. The results of analytical studies and experimental research on S-gears are presented in more detail. S-gears have a higher surface durability and a lower heat load when compared to involute gears. The usability of non-involute gears is increasing with the development of new technologies and materials. However, the advantages of non-involute shapes are not so significant that they could easily displace involute gears, which are cheaper to manufacture.

Wear of AlCrN and CrAlSiN Coatings Applied to Nonstandard Involute Gears

Wear of nonstandard involute gears with two types of coatings, AlCrN and CrAlSiN, was studied. The coatings were applied by cathodic arc deposition. The gears were tested using a Niemann tester at a graduated load up to the 12th load stage and were compared to noncoated gears. Both Biogear S150 gear oil and PP90 universal hydraulic oil were applied during these tests. The thickness of deposited coatings and wear of gear teeth were studied by SEM and their chemical compositions were determined by EDS analysis. Maximal contact pressure of 1350 MPa was calculated in the region of the tooth flank at the 12th load stage. Maximal frictional stress was also calculated on the tooth flank. The resistance against wear of gears was evaluated based on the critical weight loss and mainly based on the critical surface roughness of gears. The critical roughness was exceeded at the 10th load stage for noncoated gears. For the gears with AlCrN and CrAlSiN coatings, the critical roughness was exceeded at the 11th load stage. Wear of AlCrN and CrAlSiN coatings was nonuniform along the height of tooth. Wear on the tooth flank was characterized by fragmentation of thin coatings and subsequent detaching of fragments from the steel substrate. The steel substrate was worn by microcutting, which caused the highest roughness on the tooth surface. On the tooth pitch, surface protrusions of coatings were smoothed, and coatings cracked and locally detached subsequently. On the tooth face, surface protrusions were also smoothed but coatings remained compact without crack initiations. Both experimental oils, Biogear S150 and PP90, proved to be suitable during Niemann tests as their temperatures did not exceed the limit value of 80 °C.

Shear cutting induced residual stresses in involute gears and resulting tooth root bending strength of a fineblanked gear

The manufacturing of case-hardened gears usually consists of several complex and expensive steps to ensure high load carrying capacity. The load carrying capacity for the main fatigue failure modes pitting and tooth root breakage can be increased significantly by increasing the near surface compressive residual stresses. In earlier publications, different shear cutting techniques, the near-net-shape-blanking processes (NNSBP’s), were investigated regarding a favorable residual stress state. The influence of the process parameters on the amount of clean cut, surface roughness, hardness and residual stresses was investigated. Furthermore, fatigue bending tests were carried out using C-shaped specimens. This paper reports about involute gears that are manufactured by fineblanking. This NNSBP was identified as suitable based on the previous research, because it led to a high amount of clean cut and favorable residual stresses. For the fineblanked gears of S355MC (1.0976), the die edge radii were varied and the effects on the cut surface geometry, hardness distribution, surface roughness and residual stresses are investigated. The accuracy of blanking the gear geometry is measured, and the tooth root bending strength is determined in a pulsating test rig according to standardized testing methods. It is shown that it is possible to manufacture gears by fineblanking with a high precision comparable to gear hobbing. Additionally, the cut surface properties lead to an increased tooth root bending strength.