UNIT 1: Introduction to Gear Design

• Introduction
• Types of Gears, their Applications and Selections
• Materials for Gear, desirable properties of Gear Materials
• Modes of Gear tooth failures
• Methods of gear Lubrications
Introduction to Gears
• Gears are used to transmit power, reduce speed and increase torque.
• Gears are defined as toothed wheels or multilobed cams, which transmit power
and motion from one shaft to another by means of successive engagement of
teeth.
• Prime movers usually run at higher speeds while machines run at low speed and
require high torque.
• The gears are most rugged and durable torque transmitter and velocity ratio
remains constant
• The centre distance between the shafts is relatively small, which results in
compact construction.
• It can transmit very large power, which is beyond the range of belt or chain
drives.
Introduction to Gears
• It can transmit very large power, which is beyond the range of belt or chain
drives.
• It can transmit motion at very low velocity, which is not possible with the
belt drives
• The efficiency of gear drives is very high, even up to 99 per cent in case of
spur gears
• A provision can be made in the gearbox for gear shifting, thus changing the
velocity ratio over a wide range.
• Gear drives are, however, costly and their maintenance cost is also higher.
• The design and manufacturing of gears are highly standardized. In practice
they are designed and manufactured only as per ISO or AGMA standards.
Classification of Gears

Helica
Spur
l
Gears
Gears

Bevel Worm
Gears Gears
Classification of Gears
Spur Gears
• In spur gears, the teeth are cut parallel to the axis of the shaft.
• As the teeth are parallel to the axis of the shaft, spur gears are used
only when the shafts are parallel.
• Spur gears impose radial loads on the shafts.
Helical Gears
• The teeth of these gears are cut at an angle with the axis of the shaft.
• The magnitude of the helix angle of pinion and gear is same; however,
the hand of the helix is opposite.
• Helical gears impose radial and thrust loads on shafts.
• There is a special type of helical gear, consisting of two helical gears
with the opposite hand of helix, called as herringbone gear.
• The construction of herringbone gear results in equal and opposite
thrust reactions, balancing each other and imposing no thrust load on
the shaft.
Helical Gears
Helical Gears
Bevel Gears
• Bevel gears have the shape of a truncated cone.
• The size of the gear tooth, including the thickness and height,
decreases towards the apex of the cone.
• Bevel gears are normally used for shafts, which are at right angles to
each other. This, however, is not a rigid condition and the angle can be
slightly more or less than 90 degrees.
• The tooth of the bevel gears can be cut straight or spiral.
• Bevel gears impose radial and thrust loads on the shafts.
Bevel Gears
Worm Gears
• The worm gears consist of a worm and a worm wheel.
• The worm is in the form of a threaded screw, which meshes with the
matching wheel.
• The threads on the worm can be single or multi-start and usually have
a small lead.
• Worm gear drives are used for shafts, the axes of which do not
intersect and are perpendicular to each other.
• The worm imposes high thrust load, while the worm wheel imposes
high radial load on the shafts.
• Worm gear drives are characterized by high speed reduction ratio.
Worm Gears
Selection of Gears
• The factors that are considered for deciding the type of gear are
general layout of shafts, speed reduction, power to be transmitted,
input speed and cost.
• Spur and helical gears are used when the shafts are parallel. When the
shafts intersect at right angles, bevel gears are used. Worm gears are
recommended when the axes of shafts are perpendicular and non-
intersecting.
• When the axes of two shafts are neither perpendicular not intersecting,
crossed helical gears are employed.
Selection of Gears

• The speed reduction or velocity ratio for a single pair of spur or helical
gears is normally taken as 6 : 1. On rare occasions, this can be raised
to 10 : 1.
• For high speed reduction, two-stage or three-stage constructions are
used.
• The normal velocity ratio for a pair of bevel gears is 1 : 1, which can
be increased to 3: 1 under certain circumstances.
• For high speed reduction, worm gears offer the best choice. The
velocity ratio in their case is 60 : 1, which can be increased to 100 : 1.
Selection of Gears

• Spur gears generate noise in high speed applications, due to sudden

contact over the entire face width between two meshing teeth.
• In helical gears, the contact between the two meshing teeth begins with a
point and gradually extends along the tooth, resulting in quiet operations.
• Helical gears are preferred for high speed power transmission.
• From cost considerations, spur gears are the cheapest. They are not only
easy to manufacture but there exist a number of methods to manufacture
them.
• The manufacturing of helical, bevel and worm gears is a specialized and
costly operation.
 Materials for Gears
Desirable Properties of Gears
• The gear material should have sufficient strength to resist failure due to
breakage of the tooth
• When the gear tooth is subjected to fluctuating forces, the endurance strength
of the tooth is the deciding factor.
• The gear material should have sufficient surface endurance strength to avoid
failure due to destructive pitting.
• The resistance to wear depends upon alloying elements, grain size,
percentage of carbon, and surface hardness.
• For high-speed power transmission, the sliding velocities are very high and
the material should have low coefficient of friction to avoid failure due to
scoring
Materials for Gears
• Gears are made of cast iron, steel, bronze and phenolic resins.
• Large size gears are made of grey cast iron of Grades FG 200, FG 260
or FG 350. They are cheap and generate less noise compared with
steel gears. They have good wear resistance. Their main drawback is
poor strength.
• Case-hardened steel gears offer the best combination of a wear
resisting hard surface together with a ductile and shock- absorbing
core.
• The plain carbon steels used for medium duty applications are 50C8,
45C8, 50C4 and 55C8.
 Materials for Gears
• For heavy duty applications, alloy steels 4OCrl, 30Ni4Cr1 and
4ONi3Cr65Mo55 are used.
• Although alloy steel gears are costly, they have higher load carrying
capacity.
• Bronze is mainly used for worm wheels due to its low coefficient of
friction and excellent conformability. It is also suitable where resistance
to corrosion is an important consideration in applications like water
pumps. Their main drawback is excessive cost.
Materials for Gears

• Non-metallic gears are used under the following conditions:

• The load is light and the pitch line velocity is low.
• A long life is expected.
• It is required to have quiet operation free from noise and vibrations.
• The gears are likely to be affected by water and oil.
• In non-metallic gear drives, only the pinion is made of non-metals
such as molded nylon, laminated phenolics like Bakelite or Celoron.
• The nonmetallic pinions generally run with cast iron gears.
Gear Tooth Failures: Gear tooth breakage
• There are two basic modes of gear tooth failure— breakage of the
tooth due to static and dynamic loads and the surface destruction
• The Breakage of tooth occurs when the beam strength of gear tooth
becomes less than sum of static and dynamic load
• The complete breakage of the tooth can be avoided by adjusting the
parameters in the gear design, such as the module and the face width,
so that the beam strength of the gear tooth is more than the sum of
static and dynamic loads.
Gear Tooth Failures: Gear tooth breakage
 Gear Tooth Failures: Surface Destruction
• The surface destruction or tooth wear is classified according to the basis
of their primary causes.
Abrasive Wear:
• Foreign particles in the lubricant, such as dirt, rust, weld spatter or
metallic debris can scratch or brinell the tooth surface.
• Remedies against this type of wear are provision of oil filters,
increasing surface hardness and use of high viscosity oils.
• A thick lubricating film developed by these oils allows fine particles to
pass without scratching
Gear Tooth Failures: Surface Destruction

Corrosive Wear
• The corrosion of the tooth surface is caused by corrosive elements, such
as extreme pressure additives present in lubricating oils and foreign
materials due to external contamination.
• These elements attack the tooth surface, resulting in fine wear uniformly
distributed over the entire surface.
• Remedies against this type of wear are, providing complete enclosure for
the gears free from external contamination,
• selecting proper additives and replacing the lubricating oil at regular
intervals.
Gear Tooth Failures: Surface Destruction
Initial Pitting
• The initial or corrective pitting is a localized phenomenon,
characterized by small pits at high spots. Such high spots are
progressively worn out and the load is redistributed.
• Initial pitting is caused by the errors in tooth profile, surface
irregularities and misalignment.
• The remedies against initial pitting are precise machining of gears,
adjusting the correct alignment of gears so that the load is uniformly
distributed across the full face width, and reducing the dynamic loads.
 Gear Tooth Failures: Surface Destruction
Destructive Pitting
• Destructive pitting is a surface fatigue failure, which occurs when the load on
the gear tooth exceeds the surface endurance strength of the material.
• This type of failure is characterized by pits, which continue to grow resulting
in complete destruction of the tooth surface and, in some cases, even
premature breakage of the tooth.
• Destructive pitting depends upon the magnitude of the Hertz’ contact stress
and the number of stress cycles.
• This type of failure can be avoided by designing the gears in such a way that
the wear strength of the gear tooth is more than the sum of static and dynamic
loads.
• The surface endurance strength can be improved by increasing the surface
hardness.
 Gear Tooth Failures: Surface Destruction
Scoring
• Excessive surface pressure, high surface speed and inadequate supply of
lubricant result in the breakdown of the oil film.
• This results in excessive frictional heat and overheating of the meshing teeth.
• Scoring is a stick-slip phenomenon, in which alternate welding and shearing
takes place rapidly at the high spots.
• Rate of wear is faster in case of scoring.
• Scoring can be avoided by selecting the parameters, such as surface speed,
surface pressure and the flow of lubricant in such a way that the resulting
temperature at the contacting surfaces is within permissible limits.
• The bulk temperature of the lubricant can be reduced by providing fins on the
outside surface of the gear box and a fan for forced circulation of air over the fi
ns.
Lubrication Methods

Self Study