SPUR GEAR

DEFINITION:
Gear drive is a mechanical drive which transmits power through toothed wheels-
called as gears.

Ø In this drive, the driving wheel is in direct contact with driven wheel in contrast with
other mechanical drives such as belt drives and chain drives where an intermediate link,
like belt or chain, is needed to connect the driven wheel with the driving wheel.
Ø Gears are transmitting power from one shaft to another by means of the positive contact
of successively engaging teeth.
Ø Usually gears require more attention to lubrication, cleanliness, shaft alignment etc. and
they may be operated in a closed case with provision for proper lubrication.

APPLICATIONS OF GEAR DRIVES:

Ø The gear transmission system is most widely used because of its high load
carrying capacity, high efficiency and compact layout.
Ø Gears are used in many fields and under a wide range of conditions such as from smaller
watches and instruments to the heaviest and most powerful machineries like lifting
cranes.
Ø Some of the common applications of gears are in all automobiles, hoisting machineries,
rolling mill, machine tools such as lathes, milling machine, shaping machine etc.

ADVANTAGES :
1. Gear drives are more compact than belt drives and chain drives and hence
less space is sufficient for installation.
2. Gear drives are having high efficiency.
3. They have long service life and high reliability.
4. Gear drive can transmit more power than other driven like belt or chain
drives.
5. They have a greater range of speed ratios and power than other drives.
6. They have constant speed ratio owing to the absence of slipping which may
be happened in belt drives.
7. Metal gears do not deteriorate with age, heat, oil and grease.

DISADVANTAGES:
1. The design and manufacturing of gears are more complicated compared to
other drives.
2. It produces noise at high velocities due to inaccurate manufacturing or because of
excessive wear.
3. For "long centre distance - power transmission" such as in rice mill, flourmill etc. gears
cannot be operated.
4. They require careful maintenance .and proper lubrication than belt or chain
drives.
GEAR MATERIALS:

Ø When selecting the materials for toothed gears, it is necessary to ensure sufficient beam
strength of the-teeth and endurance of their surface layers.
Ø Based on the purpose and places of applications, gears made of various types of materials
can be employed.

The most common materials used for making gears are

(1) ferrous metals such as carbon steels, alloy steels of nickel, chromium and vanadium, and
cast-iron of different grades.
(2) Non-ferrous metals such as brass, bronze, titanium etc.
(3) non-metals such as plastic oriented materials like phenolic resins, nylon, bakelite, mica etc.

GEAR FAILURES:

The gear drives can be designed in such a way that the mating gears should overcome the
following gear failures.
Typical failures of gear tooth are
(1) Tooth breakage
(2) Pitting of tooth surface
(3) Abrasive wear
(4) seizing of teeth.

1. Tooth Breakage:
Ø Tooth breakage is the most dangerous kind of gear failure which may be the
result of high overloads of either impact or static action, repeated overloads causing
low-endurance fatigue.
Ø In order to escape from the gear tooth breakage, gear material
of sufficient beam strength may be selected.

2. Pitting:
Ø Pitting of tooth surface may happen to gears which are enclosed, well lubricated and
protected against dirt.
Ø This kind of failure occurs due to over pressing of the tooth of one gear to the tooth of
mating gear.
Ø During the continuous operation, a crack may be formed which may increase in size and
changed into the form of pits.
Ø To prevent pitting, the teeth are checked for surface endurance.

3. Abrasive wear:
Ø Abrasive wear is the principal reason for the failure of open gearing and the closed
gearing of machinery operated in a media, polluted by abrasive materials.
Ø Wear increases dynamic loads and noise, weakens the teeth and finally, leads to
tooth breakage.
Ø To prevent abrasive wear, the gears can be protected from corrosive atmospheres.
4.Seizing:
Ø Seizing of the teeth is due to the crushing of oil film on the tooth surface under high
pressure.
Ø When the surfaces, which are tightly meshed by the oil film, are in relative motion, the
particles of softer material are detached from the tooth, leaving scores and scratches on
its surfaces.
Ø To event this, the operating temperatures and the properties of lubricants are properly
maintained.

GEAR TERMINOLOGY:

There are many parameters to be considered during the gear design. Some of such parameters
common to all kinds of gears are specified as follows.

1. Tooth Profile:
Ø It is the shape of any side of a gear tooth in its cross-section.
Ø Usually two kinds of profile may be adopted which are involute profile and cycloidal
profile but involute profile toothed gears are widely used.
2. Base circle:
It is the circle of gear from which the involute profile is derived.
Base circle diameter - Pitch circle diameter x cosine of pressure angle of gear.

3. Pitch circle:
It is the imaginary circle of a gear that rolls with out slipping over the pitch circle of its mating
gear. The diameter of this circle is the most predominant parameter for the gear design.

4.Gear centre: It is the centre of pitch circle.

5.Line of centres: It is the line connecting the centres of the pitch circles of two
engaging gears.

6. Addendum circle (or) Tip circle:

The circle coincides with the crests (or) tops of teeth and the diameter of this circle is the
maximum diameter of gear.

7. Dedendum circle (or) Root circle:

This circle coincides with the roots (or) bottoms of teeth and the diameter of this circle is the
minimum diameter of gear.

8. Point of contact:
It is a point at which two profiles touch each other. It is also called as pitch point.

9. Path of contact: It is the path of the. point of contact of two engaging tooth profiles.

10. Line of action: It is the path of contact in involute gears. It is the straight line passing
through the pitch point and tangent to the base circles.

11.Pressure angle: It is the angle making by the line of action with the common tangent to the
pitch circles of mating gears. For involute system of gears, the pressure angle is constant and it
may be 14 ½ (or) 20°.

12. Module (m) : It is the ratio of pitch circle diameter to the number of teeth.
i.e., m =d/Z
Where d = Pitch circle diameter
Z = Number of teeth

13. Circular pitch: It is the distance along the pitch circle between corresponding
points of adjacent teeth.
Pc = d/Z

14. Base pitch This is the circular pitch measured on the base circle.

15. Diametral pitch: It is the ratio of the number of teeth on the gear to the unit
length of diameter of the pitch circle. This is the reverse ratio of module.

The product of the circular pitch and the diametral pitch is equal to .

16. Addendum: It is the radial distance between tip circle and pitch circle. That is, it is the
difference of tip circle radius from pitch circle radius.
Usually the addendum value may be taken equal to one module.
17. Dedendum : It is the radial distance between pitch circle and root circle. That
is, it is the difference of pitch circle radius from root circle radius. Its value is slightly
more than one module (i.e.) it is equal to 1.25 X module.

18. Clearance (c): It is the amount of distance made by the tip of one gear with
the root of mating gear during operation. It is also defined as the difference of
dedendum and addendum values.

19. Tooth height (or) whole depth: It is equal to the sum of addendum and
debendum heights which is approximately equal to 2.25 modules.

20. Working depth: It is the depth of engagement of two gears. That is, the sum
of their addendum, and is equal to 2 modules.

21.Face width: It is the length of the tooth in an axial plane.

22. Face: This is the part of the tooth in the axial plane lying between tip circle
and pitch circle.

23. Flank: This is the part of the tooth lying between pitch circle and root circle,
in the axial plane.

24. Top land: This is the top surface of a tooth.

25. Bottom land: This is the bottom surface between adjacent teeth.

26. Centre distance: It is the distance between the axes of mating gears. That is,
this is the length of the line of centres for gears whose axes are parallel.

27. Height factor (fo):

Ø This factor determines the gear as full depth teeth gear or stub teeth gear.
Ø For stub teeth gear, the basic rack has a tooth about 18 percent
Ø shorter than the full depth gear.
Usually, the height factor may be assumed as
fo = 1 for full depth gear system.
=0.8 for stub gear system.

28. Tooth thickness: This is the width of tooth measured along the pitch circle.

29. Width of space: This is the space between the successive teeth, measured on
the pitch circle.

30 Back-lash: This is the difference between the tooth thickness and the space
into which it meshes, measured on the pitch circle.
FORCE ANALYSIS:

Ø Force on a gear pair varies during engagement (Fig. 1.1) and also there is no load on the
teeth when there is no engagement
Ø The periodical effect of this load may lead to the development of fatigue cracks at tooth
base.
Ø Tooth can also be fractured by a considerable short time overload (momentary peak
load) when induced stress exceeds the ultimate strength.

Ø Let us consider the force (F n) normal to the gear profile acting at the tip of tooth as
shown in figure.
Ø Since this force is at an angle of a with the common tangent to pitch circles (i.e., pressure
angle), this force can be resolved into two components.

Tangential (or) peripheral force

Normal (or) radial force.
Now, tangential force, Ft = Fn cos α
and radial force, Fr = Fn sin α
TOOTH STRESS:

Surface strength is proportional to the surface hardness.

The teeth are considered as two contacting cylinders.

DYNAMIC EFFECTS:

Dynamic Loading in the tooth is due to

(a) profile errors
(b) circular pitch errors and
(c) deflection of teeth under load.
FATIGUE STRENGTH:

Ø It is assumed that the tooth is a cantilever with tip load.

Ø In the actual case maximum load occurs in the middle.
Ø It is also assumed that only a single pair takes the load.
Ø Actually a second pair will also be sharing the load

DESIGN PROCEDURE:

Ø For the design of spur gear drive, the following steps may be observed.
Ø From the statement of problem, note down the power to be transmitted, pinion speed,
gear ratio, life of gear drive and other working conditions.
Ø Based on the transmitting power and gear ratio, select a suitable material.
Usually the pinion is subjected to more loading cycles than gear and hence
the material selected for pinion should be stronger than gear material (PSG 8.4 or 8.5)
Note the design surface compressive stress and bending stress for the selected
material from the table (or) find them by using the formula.
Ø
Problem 1
Two spur gears are to be used for a rock crusher drive and are to be of minimum size. Gears are
to be designed for the following requirements. Power to be transmitted 18 kW, speed of pinion
1200 rpm, angular velocity ratio 3.5 : 1, tooth profile 20° stub. Assume that gears are made of
case hardened alloy steel. Design the drive.
Problem 2
Questions:
1. Explain the types of failure.
2. Define Module.
3. State the “Law of Gearing”
4. What is interference in gears?
5. What is Form factor?
6. Define involute and cycloidal gears.

Big Questions:
1. In a non-reversible type rolling mill drive, a gear is designed to run 24 hours per day,
transmitting power in the following manner. (1) 1104 kW normally (2) 4516 kW for 3
seconds, 600 times a day (3) 5888 kW maximum . (momentary peak load) all at a
constant speed of 40 rpm. The life of the gears is to be 10 years. Determine Neq.

2. Design a pair of spur gears to transmit 20 hp. At a pinion speed of 2000 rpm.
Transmission ratio is to be 3. select proper materials for the drive.

3. Design a pair of spur gear to transmit 10kw at a pinion speed of 2000 rpm. The driven
gear is to run at 500 rpm. Selecting suitable materials, decide upon the dimensions of the
gear pair.