Fundamentals of Gears

MEMS1029

MEMS1029 Mechanical Design II

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FUNDAMENTALS AND
NOMENCLATURE
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Why gears?

www.lego.com

Usually used as part of a transmission to convert

high-speed/low-torque to low-speed/high-torque
Speed=voltage (cheap)
Torque=current (expensive)

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Technical Info

AGMA
American Gear Manufacturers Association
Fill your mind with the latest gear research! at the annual mtg.

Machinerys Handbook
Every design engineer should have a copy

Gear design textbooks

Just scan Amazon
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Where to get more info?

Stock Drive Products (www.sdp-si.com)

PIC Design (www.pic-design.com)
WMBerg (www.wmberg.com)
Boston Gear (www.bostongear.com)

Lots of vendors, all with technical literature,

design guidelines, and application engineers
who live gearing.
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Customized gearing design

Standard gears should be a first choice, but custom gears

can be made in any shape.
See examples and technical papers at AKGears,
(www.akgears.com)

New manufacturing techniques have allowed almost any

shape you can design to be made (but maybe at a cost)
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Range of sizes and applications

Little ones are on the
nanoscale (carbon
nanotubes).
Common in MEMS
applications on the
microscale.
Larger sizes in ships,
telescopes,
drawbridges, power
generation,
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Conjugate Action
Mating gear teeth are
similar to cams, and said
to have conjugate action
when designed to produce
a constant angular velocity
ratio when meshing.
Involute profile almost
universal for gear teeth.
Line of action (common
surface normal at point of
contact) always intersects
O-O at a constant pitch
point P.
Radius of each circle is
called the pitch radius.

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Basic Law of Gearing

A common normal (the line of action) to the
tooth profiles at their point of contact must,
in all positions of the contacting teeth, pass
through a fixed point on the line-of-centers
called the pitch point
Any two curves or profiles engaging each
other and satisfying the law of gearing are
conjugate curves, and the relative rotation
speed of the gears will be constant.
(Slocum, Fundamentals of Design, Ch. 6)
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Generation of an Involute

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Constructing an Involute

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Gear Layout

Pressure angle is usually 14.5, 20, or 25 degrees.

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Pressure Line
rb=r cos

Pressure line is line of contact line forces act on.

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Nomenclature
Pitch circle: Theoretical circle upon which all
calculations are based.
Pitch diameter: Diameter of pitch circle.
Circular pitch: Distance from a point on one tooth
to a corresponding point on the adjacent tooth
measured on the pitch circle.
Module: Ratio of pitch diameter to number of
teeth (pitch diameter in mm, metric only)
Diametral Pitch: Ratio of number of teeth to the
pitch diameter (teeth per inch, english only)
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Nomenclature

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Basic Relationships
N
P
d
d
m
N
d
p
m
N
pP

P diametral pitch, teeth per inch

N number of teeth
d pitch diameter, in
m module, mm
d pitch diameter, mm
p circular pitch

Governed by AGMA and ANSI standards.

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Tooth Action
When properly
designed, gears
have points of
rolling contact
all with the
pressure line as
a constant
surface normal.

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Rack and Pinion

pb=pc cos
Gear radius is infinite (straight-walled teeth)
Converts rotary to linear motion, but without mechanical
advantage of a screw mechanism.
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Internal (Ring) Gear

Centers of rotation are on same side of the pitch point.

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Backlash
Backlash is the amount by which the width
of a tooth space exceeds the the thickness of
the engaging tooth.
Felt as slop or lost motion on direction
reversals.
Anti-backlash gears available for special cases.

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Contact Ratio

qa qr qt

p
p
Lab
mc
p cos
mc

Contact ratio mc measures the average number of

teeth in contact. Prefer > 1.2
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Interference
The base of the gear
tooth profile is not a
perfect involute, any
contact on this
noninvolute portion of
the flank is refererred
to as interference.
Interference can be
eliminated by
undercutting, but this
weakens the tooth
profile.
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Forming Gear Teeth

Milling, shaping, hobbing for basic profile.
Grinding, lapping, burnishing for finishing.
Manufacturing and inspecting gears
generally requires specialized equipment
and techniques beyond a typical machine
shop (at least for volume production)
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Gear Shaping
Pinion (or rack) cutter
reciprocates while
being fed into the
correct depth.
Both cutter and gear
are rotated slightly
after each cutting
stroke and cycle
continues.
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Gear Hobbing
Gear Hob is a spiral
cutting tool shaped like a
worm.
Hob and blank are rotated
at the proper angular
velocity ratio while hob is
fed across the face of the
blank.
Requires specialized tools.

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Materials
Gears are made from almost every
engineering material
Steel used where tooth strength is required.
Aluminum can be used with proper surface
treatment.
Brass and bronze used with worm-gears for
wear-in over time.
Plastics and reinforced composites very
common, especially in consumer applications.
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Four basic types

Spur gears
Helical gears
Bevel gears
Worm gears

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Types of Gears Spur Gears

Spur gears have teeth
parallel to axis of
rotation and transmit
motion between
parallel shafts.
Remember Legos?

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Types of Gears Helical Gears

Helical gears have
teeth inclined to the
axis of rotation so
teeth engage gradually
Less noisy
More contact area
Can be used with nonparallel shafts
Butgenerate thrust
loads that must be
designed for in bearing
support structure.
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Helical Gears
Shape is an involute
helicoid, formed by
unwrapping a spiral.
Gears contact gradually,
starting at a point and
extending to a line with
full engagement.
Spur gears contact all at
once with line contact.

Transmission is smooth
and quiet, but axial thrust
is generated.
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Double Helical Gears

Helixes come together
in a V-shape.
Also known as
herringbone gears.
Axial thrust force is
cancelled, extremely
useful for heavy loads
and high speeds.
Can be made from
separate gears in an
assembly.
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Pitch in Helical Gears

pn pt cos
px

pt
tan

pn normal circular pitch

pt transverse circular pitch
p x axial circular pitch

helix angle

Angularity of the teeth complicates definitions.

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Pressure Angle in Helical Gears

cos

tan n
tan t

n normal direction pressure angle

t transverse direction pressure angle
helix angle

Angularity of the teeth complicates definitions.

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Types of Gears Bevel Gears

Bevel gears have teeth
formed between
conical surfaces;
usually used to
transmit power
between intersecting
shafts.
Straight or spiral
toothed.
Called hypoid if the
shafts are offset and
non-intersecting.
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Straight Bevel Gears

Used to transmit
motion between
intersecting shafts.
Usually 90 deg, but not
always.

Pitch measured at the

large end of the tooth

MEMS1029 Mechanical Design II

tan

NP
NG

tan

NG
NP

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Types of Gears Worm Gears

Worms and worm
gears strongly
resemble screws.
Transmission ratios
can be very high.
Can be left-handed or
right-handed threads.

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Worm Gears
Used to generate
extremely high
transmission ratios.
Customary to specify
lead angle on the
worm, and the helix
angle G on the gear.
Also stage axial pitch
on worm and
transverse circular
pitch on gear.
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Tooth Systems
Standard tooth shapes created by the
American Gear Manufacturers Association
(AGMA).
See text for reference.
Vendors are better source of info.

Allow use of standardized components and

replacements (spares).

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GEAR TRAINS
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Gear Trains

Ratio of input to output speed proportional to

number on teeth on different gear combinations.
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Calculating Transmission Ratio

n3

N2
n2
N3

n6

N 2 N3 N5
n2
N3 N 4 N6

product of driving tooth numbers

product of driven tooth numbers
nL en F

Same equations can be used with pitch diameters instead of

numbers of teeth.
Covention is e positive if last gear rotates in same direction
as first gear.
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Compound Gear Trains

Given a specified
transmission ratio,
start by determining
the number of stages,
the break into
proportions for each
stage.
Pitch diameters follow
from number of teeth.
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Compound Gear Trains

Arthur Ganson, Machine with Concrete on exhibit at

MIT Museum (Cambridge, MA).
12 sets of 50:1 worm gear reducers.
Driving motor (not shown) turns at 212 RPM.
Final gear embedded in concrete block.
How long until final gear makes one theoretical turn?
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Compound Reverted Gear Trains

Input and output shafts are collinear, but this

forces distances between the shafts to be the same.
d2/2+d3/2=d4/2+d5/2 or N2+N3=N4+N5
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Example

Shaft a rotates at 600 rpm. Find the speed and direction of shaft d.
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Example
20 8 20 4

0.0784
40 17 60 51
4
nd 600 47.06 rpm CW
51

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Planetary Gears

Reuleux Collection

Planetary gear trains always contain a sun gear, a

planet carrier (or arm), and a planet gear.
Systems have two degrees of freedom, meaning
that they need two inputs for constrained motion.
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FORCE ANALYSIS
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Forces along line of action

www.lego.com

Angled line of action leads to force trying to push gears

apartprovide means of support in your design.
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Force Analysis Spur Gearing

Generate free body diagrams of each gear.

Keep consistent sign convention.
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Force Analysis Spur Gearing

Wt F32t

transmitted load

d
T Wt torque
2
H T Wt d / 2

power

Resolve forces into radial and tangential components.

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Power Calculations
Transmitted power
depends on gear
diameter and gear
speed.
Watch units in
calculations, especially
with English units.

Rolling contact leads

to high efficiencies,
usually > 98%.

SI Units
60000 H
Wt
dn
Wt transmitted load, N
H power, W
d gear diameter, mm
n gear speed, rev/min

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Force Analysis Bevel Gearing

T
Wt
rav
Wr Wt tan cos
Wa Wt tan sin

Convention is to assume that all forces act at the

midpoint of the tooth (close enough).
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Force Analysis Helical Gearing

W W sin n
Wt W cos n cos
Wa W cos n sin
Wr Wt tan t
Wa Wt tan
W

Wt
cos n cos

Assumed point of force application is in the pitch plane

and in the center of the gear face.
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Force Analysis Worm Gearing

W x W cos n sin f cos
W y W sin n

W z W cos n cos f sin

cos n f tan
cos n f cot

Worm gears are all sliding contact (not rolling)

efficiency is a function of geometry and coefficient of friction
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- End -

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