Mechanics of Machines

MCB3043

Lecture 16-19
Overview

• Function of Gears
• Types of Gears
• Spur Gear Tooth Features (Pitch, Pressure Angle)
• Meshing Gears (Interference, Backlash)
• Spur Gear Kinematics
• Gear Selection
• Rack & Pinion Kinematics
• Helical Gear Kinematics
Objectives

• Identify different types of gears

• Identify and use standard gear geometric features
• Calculate centre distance, contact ratio and interference limitations
• Determine the kinematics properties of gears
 Functions of a Gear
• To transmit motion from one rotating shaft to another
• To increase or decrease speed or torque
• To change the direction of motion from one shaft to another
Feed Rollers for a Fax Machine
Tranferring Motion & Power Between
Shafts

• More expensive • Cheaper

• Slips at high loads
• No slips: positive
engagement
Types of Gears

• Spur Gears
• Helical Gears
• Double Helical (Herringbone)
• Bevel Gears
• Variations of B.G. are Miter, Crown, Hypoid, Face, Zerol and Spiral Gears
• Worm Gears
• Rack & Pinion
 Spur Gears

• The simplest and common type of gear

• The teeth are parallel to the axis of rotation
• Used to transmit motion between parallel shafts
Helical Gears
• The gear teeth are inclined at an angle (called the helix
angle)
• The angle provides more gradual engagement of teeth
during meshing and produces less impact and noise.
• Preferred in high speed application
• Generate axial thrust
Double Helical Gears
“Herringbone”
• The axial thrust is balanced.
 Bevel Gears
• Used to transmit motion between non
parallel shafts
• Teeth formed on a conical surface and
• The angle between shaft can be smaller
or greater than 90 degrees.
 Worm Gears
• Used to transmit motion between
nonparallel and non-intercepting shafts
and the speed ratio is high
• The worm has one tooth (thread) that is
formed in a spiral around a pitch cylinder
• The worm drives the worm gear

worm
 Rack & Pinion
• A rack is a gear where the
teeth are formed on a flat
surface
• Motion is converted between
rotational to translational.
Internal Gear (or Annular Gear)

• The teeth are formed on the

internal surface of a circle
• When mating with a spur gear, the
internal gear has the advantage of
reducing the distance between the
gear centres for a given speed
variation.
• Commonly used in automatic
transmission in cars
Spur Gears
 Spur Gear Tooth Features

Diametral pitch
Circular pitch d N
p Pd 
N d
No. of teeth
Diametral Pitch Pd

• Represents the size of a gear tooth

• Industry use standard Pd issued by American Gear
Manufacturers’ Assoc. (AGMA)
• Coarse Pitch: 2, 2.25, 2.5, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16.
• Fine Pitch: 20, 24, 32,40, 48, 64, 80, 96, 120, 150,
200.
• The greater number of Pd represents smaller gear
tooth.
Standard Tooth Sizes
Module m
d 25.4
m 
N Pd
• Another industry standard to represent size of a
gear tooth, in SI unit.
• Unit: mm.
• Standard metric pitch: 1, 1.25, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6,
8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 32, 40, 50.
• Greater m represents bigger gear tooth.
Pressure Angle

Mating gears must have the same pressure angle and

diametral pitch.
Tooth Shapes with Different Pressure
Angles

14½º 20º 25º

Higher Power transmission efficiency Lower
Smaller Undesired radial load Greater
Higher Possibility of interference Lower
Involute Tooth Profiles

• To ensure the gears are being driven at constant

velocity, the path of the gear tooth contact must be
along a straight line.
• To achieve this, the tooth profile must have an
involute shape.
• The line of gear tooth contact makes an angle of ,
the pressure angle of the gear tooth.
• Tooth profile inside the base circle of a gear is not
meant to make contact with the mating gear. The
base circle diameter has this value:
db  d cos 
Gear Mating Process
Gear Mating Process
Meshing Gears

• A pinion is the smaller of a pair of mating gears.

The other is referred to as a gear.
• For two gears to mate, the teeth of both gears
must be similar, i.e. same diametral pitch and
pressure angle.
• Centre-to-centre distance is a factor in determining
the gear sizes.
d1  d 2
C
2
Contact Ratio

• Average number of teeth in contact at any instant.

• Contact ratio = 1.2; means one pair of teeth are
always in contact while another pair is in contact
20% of the time
• In practice, between 1.2 to 1.5.
• Greater contact ratio means smoother action
because more teeth sharing the load for a longer
duration during engaging or disengaging process.
• Contact ratio can be increased by using larger gears
Interference

• Contact between teeth other than at the intended parts of their

surfaces
• Commonly occurs when the number of teeth on the pinion is much
smaller than that on the mating gear.
• To avoid interference, the numbers of teeth in the pinion and the
gear must be within the limits specified in the Interference Table
shown on the following slide.
Avoiding Interference
Limiting Number of Gear Teeth
To avoid interference in gears with 20° pressure
angle, the table below must be referred.
 = 20º
No. of Pinion Teeth Maximum No. of Gear Teeth
< 13 Interference
13 16
14 26
15 45
16 101
17 1309
18 
 Avoiding Interference
Undercutting
Removing material
from the base of the
gear tooth

Undesired side effects: Reduces gear strength and

contact ratio
Backlash

• The amount that a gear can turn without its mating

gear turning.
• Gear pairs are normally designed to have some
backlash to provide:
• space for lubrication
• uneven thermal expansion
• imperfect manufacturing
• Allow greater flexibility in applications.
• Controlled to have low values for applications with
frequent reverse rotations, otherwise accuracy and
wear effects will be significant.
 Recommended Backlash Values
• Amount of backlash recommended by AGMA 0.05 0.1
 Br 
Pd Pd
• Amount of backlash in commercially available
stock gears 0.3 0.5
 Br 
Pd Pd
• For applications that require low backlash
values might want to use special gears instead
of normal stock.
• For Pitch-12 gears, the recommended range of
backlash values are 0.004” – 0.008” while the
gears stock range is 0.025” – 0.042”.
• For a Pd=12 gear with 16 teeth, the circular pitch
is 0.262”.
Spur Gear Kinematics

Velocity Ratio (or gear ratio)

driver 1 N 2
VR   
driven 2 N1
Pitch line velocity
d1 ω – rotational speed in rad/s
v1  1
2 D – pitch diameter
N – number of teeth
Example 1
Example 1 (cont.)
N1 15
Gear speed  2  1  1800  600 rpm
N2 45
N1 15
Pitch diameter d1    1.5 in.
of Gear 1 Pd1 10

d1 2 1.5
Pitch line velocity v  1  (1800  )  141 .4 in/s
2 60 2
Example 2
• Two gears are to be mounted 5 in. apart and
have a velocity ratio of 4:1. Find appropriate
pitch diameters, diametral pitches, and the
number of teeth on both gears that will be  = 20º
suitable.
No. of Maximum
Assuming 20º gears are used and Pinion No. of Gear
compactness is desired, gears with Teeth Teeth
minimum number of teeth will be chosen. < 13 Interference
To avoid interference, N1=16 and N2=16 x 4 =64 13 16
N1 N 2 N2 14 26
Pd   d2  d1  4d1
d1 d2 N1 15 45
d1  d 2  2C  2  5  10 in.  5d1 16 101

d1  2 in.; d 2  8 in 17 1309

N 16 18 
Pd   8
d 2
Spur Gear Selection

• Diametral Pitch
• Pressure Angle
• Number of Teeth
• Power Transmitted
 Power-Speed-Pitch Table
Suitable Diametral Pitches for 20º, Mild-Steel Gears with Standard Face Width
Power Pinion rpm
hp 50 100 300 600 900 1200 1800 2400 3600
2.0 6 6 10 12 12 12 16 16 16
3.0 5 6 8 10 12 12 12 12 16
5.0 4 5 6 8 10 10 12 12 12
7.5 4 5 6 8 8 8 10 10 10
10 3 4 6 6 6 8 8 8 10
15 2 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 8
20 2 3 4 5 6 6 6 6 -
25 - 3 4 5 5 5 6 5 -
30 - 2 4 4 5 5 5 - -
40 - 2 3 4 4 - - - -
50 - - 3 4 4 - - - -
Available Stock Gear Table
• Not economical for
gear manufacturers
to manufacture all
possible geometrical
specification of
gears.
• The gears of specific
geometry might not
be available.
• Designers have to
select from the
catalogue provided
by gear
manufacturers
• Designer is
responsible in
selecting a gear that
satisfies the design
requirement.
 Example 3
• A pair of 20º mild steel gears are to be selected for an application
where they need to transfer 5 hp. The pinion drives at 1800 rpm.
The gear ratio is 4. Determine an appropriate set of gears for this
application.
 Example 3: Check Power Rating
Suitable Diametral Pitches for 20º, Mild-Steel Gears with Standard Face Width
Power Pinion rpm
hp 50 100 300 600 900 1200 1800 2400 3600
2.0 6 6 10 12 12 12 16 16 16
3.0 5 6 8 10 12 12 12 12 16
5.0 4 5 6 8 10 10 12 12 12
7.5 4 5 6 8 8 8 10 10 10
10 3 4 6 6 6 8 8 8 10
15 2 4 5 6 6 6 6 6 8
20 2 3 4 5 6 6 6 6 -
25 - 3 4 5 5 5 6 5 -
30 - 2 4 4 5 5 5 - -
40 - 2 3 4 4 - - - -
50 - - 3 4 4 - - - -
 Example 3: Check Interference
N  = 20º
Pd   12
d No. of Maximum
The gear ratio or velocity ratio is equal to the ratio Pinion No. of Gear
of the number of tooth on the gears. For gear ratio Teeth Teeth
of 4, the minimum no. of teeth for the pinion is 16 < 13 Interference
so that interference can be avoided. 13 16
The mating gear has 4 x 16 teeth = 64 teeth.
14 26
15 45
16 101
17 1309
18 
Check Available Stock

But then, a check on the available stock gear table for pitch 12 gears, the 64-
tooth gear is not available. The next available combination for gear ratio of 4
are gears with 18 & 72 teeth. These are available.

18 72
dp   1.5 in. dg   6.0 in.
12 12
Gear Train

• Several gear reduction pairs are combined to achieve high speed

reduction
• Many mechanical power sources (motors, turbines, engines) operate
efficiently at very high speeds ~ 1500 rpm to 10,000 rpm
• Many mechanisms require the output speed to be low ~ 10 to
100rpm
• TV – gear train value of speed reduction
Gear Trains

Gearbox in a toy
Gearbox
Gear Trains

3
2
4 5 7
6

3
5 6 7
2 4
 Gear Trains
• N2=12, Pd2=12  D2=N2/ Pd2-3=12/12=1 in.,
• D3=2.5 in.  VR2-3=-D3/ D2=-2.5/1=-2.5
• N4=15  D4=N4/Pd4=15/10=1.5 in.
• D5=3 in., Pd5=10  VR4-5=-D5/ D4=-3/1.5=-2
• D6=1.5 in., Pd6=8  D7=N7/Pd6-7=32/8=4 in
• N7=32  VR6-7=-D7/ D6=-4/1.5=-2.67

3
5 6 7
2 4
Gear Train Value
 VR2-3=-2.5
 VR4-5=-2
 VR6-7=-2.67
 Train Value TV = VR2-3x VR4-5x VR6-7
=-2.5 x -2 x -2.67 = -13.33
The input speed at gear 2 has been reduced by a factor of 13.33 in the
reverse direction at gear 7.

3
5 6 7
2 4
 Idler Gears
Train Value TV = VR2-3x VR3-4
=N3/N2 X N4/N3
= N4/N2
The train value is only dependent on the Gear 2 and Gear 4. Gear 3 is an idler
gear.
Its function is to change the direction of gear rotation. The input and output shaft
speeds are not affected by the idler gear.

3 4
2
Gear Kinematics

• Rack & Pinion

• Helical Gear
• Bevel Gear
• Worm Gear
 Rack & Pinion
• Converts limited rotation
into translation or vice
versa.
• Rack - a gear with an
infinite pitch diameter.
• Pitch line is the line of
contact
• The most common
example: car steering rack

Rack & pinion in a household weighing scale

 Rack Kinematics
• The displacement of the rack, Δs, mating a pinion of diameter
d turning an angle  :

d
s  
2
• The linear velocity of the rack, v, mating a pinion turning at a
speed ω :

d
v 
2
 Problem 10-38
A rack and pinion will be used for a steering mechanism. The 12-
pitch pinion has 18 teeth. Determine the required speed of the
pinion if the rack must be driven at a rate of 50 in/min.

d 50
v   50 in/min  in/s
2 60
N 18
d   1.5 in.
Pd 12

2v 2( 50 )
  60  1.11 rad/s  10.6 rpm
d 1.5
 Helical Gear
• The gear teeth engage gradually-- run
smoother and quieter; Right Hand Helix
• More difficult to manufacture than spur gears
and hence more expensive
• Helical gears are designed either right-hand
or left-hand. A gear with teeth that slope
down towards the left is designated as a left-
hand helix, while another which slope down
to the right is called a right-hand helix.
• A helical gear can only mesh with another
helical gear with the same diametral pitch
and helix angle but of opposite hand.
• A thrust load is generated along one side of
the shaft axis. Left Hand Helix
Helical Gear Kinematics
• Helical gear has a helix angle, , which

tranverse
is the angle of teeth inclination w.r.t
the shaft axis.
• Normal  values are between 15º and
45º.
• When viewed through the transverse d 
section (view A-A), a helical gear p  
appears to be identical to a spur gear. N Pd

• Section B-B defines the normal

section, normal to the gear teeth.
• Same diametral pitch standard as spur
gears are used.


p n  p cos  Pd  Pd cos 
n
Pd 
n

pn
Helical Gear Interference Minimum No. of Helical
Gear Teeth to Avoid
Interference
Helix Normal Pressure
Interference can be avoided in helical Angle Angle,  n
gears by specifying the number of 14½º 20º 25º
teeth above a minimum which
0 32 17 12
depends on the
5 32 17 12
• helix angle 10 31 17 12
• pressure angle. 15 29 16 11
20 27 15 10
22.5 25 14 10
25 24 13 9
30 21 12 8
35 18 10 7
40 15 8 6
45 12 7 5
Problem 10-42
In order to reduce the noise of a gear drive, two 8-pitch spur gears with 20 and
40 teeth are to be replaced with helical gears. The new set must have the same
velocity ratio and centre distance. Specify two helical gears, which will be
formed on a hob, to accomplished the task.

N2 d1  d 2
N1
 N1
20  40
VR  2 C 
Pd Pd
  3.75 in.
N1 2 2 2(8)
N1  N 2 3 N1
C   3.75 in.
2 Pd cos 
n
2 Pd
3 N1
C  3.75 in.  cos  0.05 N1
2(8) cos 
N1=19 and N2=38 are chosen.
N1 N2 cos(phi) phi
Interference is avoided.
19 38 0.95 18.2
18 36 0.9 25.8
17 34 0.85 31.8
16 32 0.8 36.9
15 30 0.75 41.4
 Bevel Gears Kinematics
Motion is transferred between two intersecting shafts. The parameters are:
• The shaft angle : the angle between the two shafts.
• The pitch angle  : the conic angle of the gear teeth w.r.t the gear rotation
axis.

 The velocity ratio VR

N gear
VR 
N pinion

   pinion   gear
 Bevel Gears Kinematics
• Both gears must have the same diametral pitch and pressure
angle (normally 20°) to mesh.
• Diametral pitch follows the same standard values as in spur
gears. This determines the pitch diameter of the gear.

N sin 
d tan  pinion 
Pd 
  N gear  
The pitch angle cos     

 
depends on the:   pinion 
N 
 Shaft angle sin 
 Velocity ratio tan  gear 

  N pinion 

cos     
 
  N gear  
 Miter Gears
A special set of bevel gears with the following spec:
• Σ = 90°
• VR = 1,

sin 90
tan   1
cos 90  1
• thus γ=45°.
 Bevel Gear Example
• A pair of bevel gears has 20 and 75 teeth and is used on shafts
that intersect each other at 60°. Determine the velocity ratio
and the pitch angle of both gears.

VR 
N gear

75
 3.75   60
N pinion 20
sin 60
tan  1   0.204
cos 60  3.75
 1  11.5
 2     1  60  11.5  48.5.
Worm Gear Kinematics

The worm is described by:

• The number of threads, Nw ( normally 1, 2 or 4)
• The worm pitch diameter, dw
• The pitch, pw
• The lead angle, 

N w pw
tan  
d w

pw  p gear 
pd
N gear
VR  The worm gear set is self-locking if the worm cannot be driven by
Nw
the gear. The lead angle must be less than 10º for this to be achieved.
 Worm Gear Example

A worm gearset is needed to reduce the speed of an electric motor from

3600 to 60 rpm. Strength considerations require that 16-pitch gears to be
used and it is desired that the set be self-locking. Specify the set that
accomplishes the task.
N gear 3600
Assuming a single-thread VR    60
Nw 60
worm is used,
N gear  VR N w  60 1  60 teeth
  To be self-locking, λ < 10°, say λ
pw  p gear    0.196 in. < 5°.
pd 16
N w pw 1 0.196 N gear 60
dw    0.71 in. d gear    3.75 in.
 tan    tan 5 pd 16
d w  d gear 0.71  3.75
Centre distance C   2.23 in.
2 2
 Planetary (Epicyclic) Gear Train

• Can achieve a high velocity ratio in compact space

• The train value can be changed easily by moving and holding
any gears in place.