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Gear Trains

Gear trains transmit motion from one shaft to another and provide speed reductions. The main types are: 1) Simple gear trains have one gear per shaft with fixed axes. 2) Compound gear trains have multiple gears on some shafts. 3) Reverted gear trains have the driving and driven gears coaxial. 4) Planetary/epicyclic gear trains allow axial rotation, useful for high speed ratios in small spaces.

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64 views18 pages

Gear Trains

Gear trains transmit motion from one shaft to another and provide speed reductions. The main types are: 1) Simple gear trains have one gear per shaft with fixed axes. 2) Compound gear trains have multiple gears on some shafts. 3) Reverted gear trains have the driving and driven gears coaxial. 4) Planetary/epicyclic gear trains allow axial rotation, useful for high speed ratios in small spaces.

Uploaded by

shristikushram2003
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Gear Trains

Introduction

A gear train is a combination of gears used to transmit motion from one shaft
to another. It becomes necessary when it is required to obtain large speed
reduction within a small space.

The following are the main types of gear trains:

1. Simple gear train


2. Compound gear train
3. Reverted gear train
4. Planetary or epicyclic gear train
In simple gear trains, each shaft supports one gear.
In a compound gear train, each shaft supports two gear wheels except the first and the last.
In a reverted gear train, the driving and the driven gears are coaxial or coincident.

In all these three types, the axes of rotation of the wheels are fixed in position and the gears
rotate about their respective axes.

However, it is also possible that in a gear train, the axes of some of the wheels are not fixed
but rotate around the axes of other wheels with which they mesh. Such trains are known as
planetary or epicyclic gear trains.

Epicyclic gear trains are useful to transmit very high velocity ratios with gears of smaller sizes
in a lesser space.
SIMPLE GEAR TRAIN

A series of gears, capable of receiving and transmitting motion


from one gear to another is called a simple gear train. In it, all the
gear axes remain fixed relative to the frame and each gear is on a
separate shaft (Fig. 11.1 ).

In a simple gear train we can observe the following:


1. Two external gears of a pair always move in opposite
directions.

2. All odd-numbered gears move in one direction and all even-


numbered gears in the opposite direction.
For example, gears 1, 3, 5, etc, move in the counterclockwise
direction.

3. Speed ratio, the ratio of the speed of the driving to that of the driven shaft, is negative when the input
and the output gears rotate in the opposite directions and it is positive when the two rotate in the same
direction.

The reverse of the speed ratio is known as the train value of the gear train.
4. All the gears can be in a straight line or arranged in a zig-zag manner. A simple gear train can also
have bevel gears.

Let T = number of teeth on a gear


N = speed of a gear in rpm.

Thus, it is seen that the intermediate gears have no effect on the speed ratio and, therefore, they are known
as idlers.
COMPOUND GEAR TRAIN
When a series of gears are connected in such a way that two or more gears rotate about an axis with the
same angular velocity, it is known as compound gear train. In this type, some of the intermediate shafts,
i.e., other than the input and the output shafts, carry more than one gear as shown in Fig. 11.2.

Fig.11.2

Gear box of a lathe


consisting of compound
gears
A compound gear train
If the gear 1 is the driver then
REVERTED GEAR TRAIN

If the axes of the first and the last wheels of a compound gear coincide, it is called a
reverted gear train. Such an arrangement is used in clock and in simple lathes where back gear is used to
give a slow speed to the chuck.

Referring Fig. 11.4,


PLANETARY OR EPICYCLIC GEAR TRAIN
A gear train having a relative motion of axes is called a planetary or an epicyclic
gear train ( or simply epicyclic gear or train).
In an epicyclic train, the axis of at least one of the gears also moves relative to
the frame.

Consider two gear wheels S and P, the axes of which are connected by an arm a
(Fig. 11.5). If the arm a is fixed, the wheels S and P constitute a simple train.
However, if the wheel S is fixed so that the arm can rotate about the axis of S,
the wheel P would also move around S. Therefore, it is an epicyclic train.

Usually, the wheel P is known as the epicyclic wheel. The term epicyclic emerges
from the fact that the wheel P rolls outside another wheel and traces an epicyclic
path.
It is also possible that the fixed wheel is annular and another wheel rolls inside it.
In that case, the path traced will be a hypocycloid. However, it has become
customary to call all gears, in which one of the axes rotates about a fixed axis, as
epicyclic gears.
Large speed reductions are possible with epicyclic gears and if the fixed wheel is annular, a more compact
unit could be obtained. Important applications of epicyclic gears are in transmission, computing devices, and
so on.
In an epicyclic gear, one wheel is, usually, fixed as in the above
case. However, it is not necessary at all and the wheel S can
have rotations in any direction about its axis, i.e., clockwise or
counter-clockwise.

Figure 11.6 shows an epicyclic gear with no fixed wheel. The


epicyclic gear consists of wheels B, C, D, E and F and the arm
a. Wheels G and Hare merely the drivers; G drives the arm a
through the wheel I whereas H drives the wheel C.
In general, gear trains have two degrees of freedom. This means to obtain a controlled
motion of the output, the train must have two inputs. In Fig. 11.6, two inputs, to the
wheel C and the arm a result in a definite motion of the wheel F or of the output shaft.

However, number of inputs can be reduced to one, if one wheel of the train is fixed. That
amounts to reducing the speed of that gear wheel to zero.

In dealing with epicyclic gears, distinction must be made between wheels which are part
of the epicyclic train and those which are not.

In the gear train of Fig. 11.6, G and H cannot be the parts of the epicyclic train. Also, the
speed of the arm a will be the same as that of the wheel!.
Example 13.2. Two parallel shafts, about 600 mm apart are to be connected by spur gears. One shaft is to run at 360 r.p.m.
and the other at 120 r.p.m. Design the gears, if the circular pitch is to be 25 mm.
Hence the number of teeth on the first and second gear must be 38 and 114 and their pitch circle diameters must be 302.36
mm and 907.1 mm respectively. The exact distance between the two shafts must be 604.73 mm. Ans.
Thank You

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