ZEIT3700 Mechanical Design 1

2010 Semester 2

Gears
Function
The function of gear wheels is to connect rotating shafts so that there is: a constant ratio of shaft angular velocities, and a fixed phase relationship between shaft angular positions. Gearing is used in preference to other methods of connecting rotating shafts when: high powers must be transmitted in minimum dimensions, and also when the direction of rotation or the orientation of driveshaft axes must be changed. A gear wheel may also mesh with a rack a straight gear which is in effect a wheel of infinite diameter to convert rotary motion to linear motion and vice versa. Gear wheels are usually of cylindrical or conical form with regularly spaced teeth on an outside (for external gears) or inside (for internal gears) surface which can mesh with similar teeth on another such wheel. Practical gears have teeth so shaped that torque can be transmitted by normal pressure applied to the flanks of the individual teeth. It is also a requirement that contact should be continuous, torque being transmitted by one tooth for an angle of rotation of the gear wheel (the arc of contact) which is at least as large as the angular spacing of the teeth: this usually requires at least 14 teeth for the smallest gear wheel. While it is possible to choose a wide variety of tooth shapes for the teeth of one gear wheel and then develop the conjugate tooth form for another gear wheel to mesh with it there is advantage in having the teeth on both wheels of the same form, and in practice this leads to two usable tooth forms only. For such forms we can have a range of tooth sizes, and these are described as either modules (metric), which are the number of millimetres of effective diameter per tooth, or diametral pitches (Imperial), which are the number of teeth per inch of effective diameter.

There are four aspects to the design of and with gears: [I] The involutometry of gears, which is the determination of the profile shapes of gear teeth which provide the required tooth action and permit of the machining of the tooth shapes by the process of gear generation. [II] The kinematics of gear pairs and gear trains, which is concerned with the angular velocities and phase relationship between shafts connected by such gear systems. [III] The internal mechanics of gear wheels, which is concerned with the stresses, particularly in the individual gear teeth, due to the transmission of torque by tooth contact. [IV] The external mechanics of gear wheels, which is concerned with the loads imposed on the shafts on which gear wheels are mounted, and in turn on the bearings and housings in which the shafts are carried, by the tooth contact loads of the gears. Of these, [I] and [III] are essentially the design of gears, while [II] and [IV] are the design with gears. [III] is really a topic in advanced stress analysis (particularly Hertzian contact stresses) and we will be concerned only superficially with it.

Kinematics
Properly designed gear teeth permit pairs of gear wheels to rotate with meshing teeth so that four conditions are satisfied: [1] There is continuous transmission of torque between the gear wheels. [2] The relative angular velocities (1 and 2) are the same as those of two circles in rolling contact without slipping, and these circles called the pitch circles are of diameters D1 and D2 which lie somewhere between the bottom and top of the teeth [3] The diameter D of the pitch circle is proportional to the number of teeth N, and in particular if m is the tooth module, D = mN (mm). [4] If gears with N1 and N2 teeth connect two parallel shafts, only pairs of gears whose total number of teeth is (N1 + N2) may be alternatively used unless the tooth module is changed. From [2] there are two possibilities: (A) The pitch circles are in external contact, so that the common tangential contact velocity is R11 but R22, and hence 2/1 = - R1/R2. (B) The pitch circles are in internal contact, so that the common contact velocity is R11 and R22, and hence 2/1 = + R1/R2. When we then apply [3], we have the kinematic relationships: (A) External contact: 2/1 = - N1/N2 (B) Internal contact: 2/1 = + N1/N2

External Mechanics
Although the actual tooth contact region can lie at multiple locations within the arc of contact of a gear pair, and this can be important for internal mechanics, the loads imposed on shafts, bearings and housing can be analysed by taking the tooth loads to be applied at the point of common tangency between the pitch circles that is, on the line of centres of the gears in most cases. The equal and opposite forces on the meshing gears will have tangential, radial and axial components. The torque is transmitted by the tangential component of the tooth contact force; this component is equal and opposite for the two gears, and thus if we consider the torques which the gear wheels apply to the shafts: (A) External contact: Q1/Q2 = + D1/D2 = + N1/N2 (B) Internal contact: Q1/Q2 = - D1/D2 = - N1/N2 For gearboxes, we always consider the torques which are applied from outside by the shafts on the assembly, which are equal and opposite to the torques on the shafts from their attached gears. When the sum of the shaft torques is not zero the equilibrating torque is supplied by the gearbox mounting. Remember that torque is a vector quantity, so that the sum of torques must be taken vectorially. If a shaft is an input shaft, the torque has the same sense as the angular velocity; if it is an output shaft the torque and angular velocity have opposite senses. A result of gear involutometry is that practical gear tooth profiles generate radial and axial forces as well as the torque-transmitting tangential component. The radial and axial components are proportional to the instantaneous value of the tangential force and the constants of proportionality are properties of the gear tooth form.

Involute Gear Tooth Forms

The usual tooth form for gears in machine applications is the involute: that is, each flank of a gear tooth is mostly a portion of an involute curve, with small modifications the trochoids at the top and bottom of the flank. An involute is the curve generated by a point on a string which is unwound from a circular former, the base circle; for a rack where the base circle has infinite diameter the involute is a straight line; the inclination of the straight rack tooth face is the pressure angle. An important property of the involute tooth form is that the line of contact between the two teeth of a pair of mating gears coincides with the pressure angle line through the pitch point, where the two pitch circles touch.

http://www.roymech.co.uk/Useful_Tables/Drive/Gears.html

Generating approximate tooth shapes in CATIA

CATIA can be used to investigate gear tooth forms. When gears are generated that is, cut from gear blanks by a cutter which is shaped as a mating gear wheel , rack or single tooth the shape actually obtained can be determined; when gears are machined by removing material to a specified profile for example, by using a wire cutter the ideal tooth form can be specified. For CAD modelling we usually approximate the involute form by one, two or three slope-continuous circular arcs, based on the correct base, dedendum, pitch and addendum circle diameters. Gear tooth dimensions are standardised as modules (in imperial units, as diametral pitches) so that the pitch circle diameter = number of teeth N module m, addendum (height of tooth above the pitch circle) and dedendum (depth of tooth space below the pitch circle), the working flank of a tooth is an involute curve, and the line through the pitch point (the point common to the pitch circles of two meshing gears) inclined at the pressure angle defines the base circle for the involute. For the standard 20 pressure angle, this means that the base circle diameter = cos 20 pitch circle diameter = 0.9397 PCD. For standard-depth teeth, the addendum = m, and the minimum dedendum = 1.15 m The working face of internal gear teeth have the same involute shape as an external gear of the same m and N, but the inside diameter must be clear of the base circle of any external gear which meshes with it, and at the outside diameter (the bottom of the tooth space !) there must be a relieving fillet to avoid interference with the tips of the teeth any mating external gear.

Tutorial
Use CATIA to develop a parametrised spur gear model, with the following as the initial configuration: External gear: 120 mm PCD, with module of 2.5 mm, pressure angle of 20 , with standard addendum and dedendum. Radius of tip fillet: 0.5 mm, radius of root fillet :0.5 mm Thickness of gear: 40 mm Internal bore: 25 mm The involute tooth shape is to be approximated by two circular arcs, passing through the pitch point and the true involute point at the top of the tooth, and the pitch point and the true involute point at the base circle or the interior circle (whichever is larger), with slope continuity at the pitch point.