Influence of gear surface roughness on the pitting and micropitting life

Pitting and micropitting are the two main gear rolling contact fatigue modes. It is widely accepted that micropitting will lead to pitting; however, the relationship between pitting and micropitting life needs further investigation. In this work, micropitting and pitting tests were performed on an FZG back-to-back test rig using standard FZG PT-C and GF-C gears. The gear tooth profile change due to micropitting and pitting damage was measured in situ in the gearbox using a profilometer after each test. The gear surface roughness parameters were calculated from the measured tooth profile. A Gaussian low pass filter with cut off length [Formula: see text] mm was applied to the measured tooth profile to obtain the waviness. The calculated roughness parameters and the obtained tooth profile with waviness for each test were imported into the KISSsoft software to calculate the contact stress and specific film thickness at the corresponding load stage. Experimental results show that smooth gear surface can reduce or even avoid micropitting damage, but could lead to a reduction in pitting life.

Measuring Sensors Calibration in Worm Gear Rolling Testers

The ISO standard regulating gear-rolling measurement does not specify in detail the calibration and verification procedures for this type of equipment. This may be one of the reasons for the lack of reproducibility in these rolling tests. The uncertainty budget method, which is the most appropriate way to know the accuracy of this dynamic measurement, shows that the measuring sensors’ accuracy is only a part of the total measurement process uncertainty. In this work, a new calibration and verification procedure for a worm gear rolling tester is presented, based on machine tool, coordinate measuring machine and gear measuring instruments’ calibration techniques. After compensating numerically for the measuring instruments, it has been evaluated how the error components of each movement affect the meshing point, a fundamental factor to ensure a good gear transmission. The study shows that there are unintentional position variations, not detected by the measuring sensors, that have to be identified and quantified in the calibration for their later inclusion in the uncertainty budget. In this way, the measurement uncertainty could be reduced, and thus improve the reproducibility of these testers, as a preliminary stage to the development of optimized rolling measurement equipment to solve current limitations.