Toothed Gearing

1. Introduction
Gears constitute one of the best of the various means for transmitting motion from one
shaft to another. Gear drives provide the true positive drive. Gears are ideally suited to
transmit large amount of power at constant velocity ratio.

2. Advantages and Disadvantages of Gear Drives

Advantages:
a) It transmit exact velocity ratio
b) It may be used to transmit large power
c) It has high efficiency
d) It has reliable service
e) It has compact layout

Disadvantages
a) The manufacture of gears require special tools and equipment
b) The error in cutting teeth may cause vibration and noise during operation
3. Types of gears
Common types of gears:
a) Spur gears
b) Helical gears
c) Bevel gears
d) Worm gears

Spur gears

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 Helical gears

Straight bevel gears

Spiral bevel gears

Worm gears
4. Classification of gears
The gears or toothed wheels may be classified as follows:
a) According to the position of axes
i) Parallel axes e.g. spur gears and Helical gears
ii) Intersecting axes e.g. Bevel gears
iii) Non-intersecting and non-parallel axes gears e.g. skew bevel gears

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b) According to the peripheral velocity of gears
i) Low velocity gears (< 3m/s2)
ii) Medium velocity gears (Between 3m/s and 15m/s )
iii) High velocity gears (> 15m/s)
c) According to the type of gears
i) External gearing
ii) Internal gearing
iii) Rack and Pinion
d) According to the position of teeth on the gear surface
i) Straight teeth e.g. spur gears
ii) Inclined teeth e.g. Helical gears
iii) Curved e.g. spiral gears

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5. Terms Used in Gears

a) Pitch circle: It is an imaginary circle which by pure rolling action would give the same.
Motion as the actual gear
b) Pitch circle diameter: It is the diameter of the pitch circle. The size of the gear is usually
specified by the pitch circle diameter.
c) Pitch point: It is a common point of contact between two pitch circles
d) Pressure angle or angle of obliquity: It is the angle between the common normal to
two gear tooth at the point of contact and the common tangent at the pitch point
e) Addendum: It is the radial distance of a tooth from the pitch circle to the top of the
tooth.
f) Dedendum: It is the radial distance of a tooth from the pitch circle to the bottom of the
tooth.
g) Addendum Circle: It is the circle drawn through the top of the teeth and it is concentric
with the pitch circle
h) Dedendum Circle: It is the circle drawn through the bottom of the teeth. It is also called
root circle.
i) Base circle: It is the circle from which the involute curves forming the tooth profile are
drawn

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j) Circular pitch (Pc): It is the distance measured on the circumference of the pitch circle
from a point of one tooth to the corresponding point on the next tooth. Pc = πD/T
D = Diameter of the pitch circle
T = Number of teeth on the wheel
k) Diametral pitch (Pd): It is the ratio of number of teeth to the pitch circle diameter in
millimeters.
Pd = T/D
l) Module: It is the ratio of the pitch circle diameter in millimeters to the number of teeth. It
is usually denoted by m. Mathematically,
Module, m = D/T

m) Total depth. It is the radial distance between the addendum and the Dedendum of a gear.
It is equal to the sum of the addendum and Dedendum.
n) Working depth: It the radial distance from the addendum circle to the clearance circle. It
is equal to the sum of the addendum of the two meshing gears.
o) Tooth thickness: It the width of the tooth measured along the pitch circle
p) Tooth space: It the width of space between the two adjacent teeth measured along the
pitch circle
q) Face width: It the width of the gear tooth measured parallel to the axis.
r) Face of tooth: It is the surface of the gear tooth above the pitch surface
s) Flank of tooth: It is the surface of the gear tooth below the pitch surface
t) Top land: It is the surface of the top of the tooth.
u) Centre distance(C): It is the sum of pitch circle radii of the meshing gears
v) Path of contact: It is a path traced by the point of contact of two teeth from the
beginning to the end of engagement
w) Length of path of contact: It is the length of the common normal cut-off by the
addendum circles of the wheel and pinion
x) Arc of contact: It is a arc traced by the point of on the pitch circle from the beginning to
the end of engagement of a given pair of teeth

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From above figure for spur gear
Let:
˚
r , r 1 , r 2=be pitch radii
ra = addendum radius (tip or external radius)
rr = root circle radius (Dedendum circle radius)
rb = base circle radius
a = addendum
a =Centre distance

a) a=r 1 +r 2
b) For standard gear:
Addendum = module (a = m)
Dedendum = 1.25addendum
c) ra = r + a
d) rr = r −1.25 a
e) rb ¿ r cos α

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6. Gears Materials
The materials used for the manufacture of gears depend upon the strength and service
conditions like wear, noise etc. The gears may be manufactured from metallic or non-
metallic materials. The metallic gears with cut teeth are commercially obtained in cast
iron, steel and bronze. The non metallic materials like wood, compressed paper and
synthetic resins like nylon are used for gears, especially for reducing noise.
The cast iron is widely used for the manufacturing of gears due to its good wearing
properties, excellent machinability and ease of producing complicated shapes by casting
method. The steel is used for high strength gears and steel may be plain carbon steel or
alloy steel. The steel gears are usually heat treated in order to combine properly the
toughness and tooth hardness. The phosphor bronze is widely used for worm gears in
order to reduce wear of the worms which will be excessive with cast iron or steel.

7. GEAR TRAIN
Definition:
A gear train is a power transmission system made up of two or more gears. The gear to
which the force is first applied is called the driver and the final gear on the train to which
the force is transmitted is called the driven gear. Any gears between the driver and the
driven gears are called the idlers. Idlers do not affect the speed ratio or train value of gear
trains. Conventionally, the smaller gear is the Pinion and the larger one is the Gear. In
most applications, the pinion is the driver; this reduces speed but increases torque.
Speed ratio: Speed ratio or velocity ratio is the ratio of driven shaft to that of driving
shaft. It is –Ve when input and output gears rotates in opposite directions and +Ve when
the two rotates in the same direction. Train value: The reciprocal of speed ratio is known
as train value
Types of gear trains:
1. Simple gear train, 2. Compound gear train, 3. Reverted gear train, and 4. Epicyclic gear
train.

Simple Gear
Train when there is only one gear on each shaft. The shafts over which the gears are
mounted are fixed. Sometimes, the distance between the two gears is large. The motion
from one gear to another, in such a case, may be transmitted by either of the following
two methods: 1. By providing the large sized gear or 2. By providing one or more
intermediate gears (idle gears).

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Compound gear train:
This is a gear train where there is more than one gear on a shaft. Compounded wheels are
normally placed in intermediate shafts. All shafts over which the gears are mounted are
fixed.

Reverted gear train: This is special compound gear train when the axes of the first gear
(i.e. first driver) and the last gear (i.e. last driven or follower) are co-axial, then the gear
train is known as reverted gear train

They are used in clocks and simple lathes

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 Epicyclic gear train: This is a gear train where there is more than one gear on a shaft.
Are those gear train in which one or more gears orbit about the central axis of the train.
The axes of the shafts over which the gears are mounted may move relative to fixed axis

They are used in back gear of lathe machines, differential gears of the Automobiles,
hoists wrist watches

8. ANALYSIS FOR A GEAR PAIR

Consider two gears in a mesh. Gear 1 (driver) is turning counterclockwise at angular

velocity ω1 and has Z1 teeth. Gear 2 (the driven gear) is turning clockwise with angular
velocity ω2 and has Z2 teeth. The drive between the two gears is represented by plain
cylinders having diameters equal to their pitch circles.

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Pair of gears can only mesh correctly if and when the diametral pitch (Pd) is the same,
accordingly:

The driving gear pushes the driven gear, exerting a force component perpendicular to the
gear radius; and because the gear is rotating, power is transferred.

Assuming no frictional losses, the input and output power can be set equal to each other
as

It follows that torque and speed are inversely proportional. If a high torque is desired,
then the speed must be sacrificed. When speed increases, the torque decreases
proportionally. We now consider the relative velocity of the two gears. The point of
contact of the two pitch surfaces shall have velocity along the common tangent. The
velocity of a point on a rotating object is given by r ω. Because there is no slip, definite
motion of gear 1 can be transmitted to gear 2, therefore:

Where r1 and r2 are pitch circle radii of gears 1 and 2, respectively.

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Putting it in terms of diameter, r = d/2, it implies

It follows that speed and diameter are inversely proportional. If a high speed is desired,
then the diameter of driven gear must be lower than the driving gear. Since, pitch circle
radius of a gear is proportional to its number of teeth (Z):

It follows that the velocity ratio of a pair of gears is the inverse ratio of their number of
teeth, i.e. the gear with the greater number of teeth will always revolve slower than the
gear with the smaller number of teeth. We can now combine the torque equation, dia.
Equation and the velocity equation to get the relationship with the gear teeth ratio

Gear ratio is defined as the ratio of diameters (teeth) of output to the input gear. When the
input gear is smaller than the output gear, the output torque is higher than the input torque
and the output speed is lower than the input speed or in other words “a higher gear ratio
equates to high torque and lower speed”.

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9. POWER FLOW THROUGH GEAR PAIR

With a pair of gears, power is transmitted by the force developed between contacting
teeth. According to fundamental law of gear this resultant force ( F N ) always acts along
the pressure line (or the line of action). To investigate how the forces are typically
transmitted between a pair of gears, refer to the figure below

This resultant force F N can be resolved into two components: tangential component F T
and radial components F R at the pitch point

a) F T the tangential force component acting at the radius of the pitch circle. It
determines the magnitude of the torque and consequently the power
transmitted. The Tangential component is expressed as: F T = F N cosФ
b) F R - the radial or normal force directed towards the center of the gear. F R
Serves to separate the shafts connected to the gears and for this reason F R is
sometimes referred to as the separating force. The radial component is
expressed as: F R = F N sinΦ or F T tanΦ
Torque exerted on the gear shaft in terms of the pitch circle radius can be found by
equation T =F T ×r

10. TOOTH FAILURE

Typical Failure of tooth are:

a) Breakages of the tooth due bending of stress of tooth root: Gear tooth behaves

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 like a cantilever beam subjected to repetitive bending stress. The tooth may crack
due to repetitive bending stress. Maximum bending stress occurs in the region of
tooth root fillet with the maximum stress concentration.
b) Pitting: Is surface fatigue failure due to repetitive contact stress. This is a major
cause of gear failure accounting for nearly 60% of the gear failures. Pitting is the
formation of craters on the gear tooth surface. These craters are formed due to the
high amount of compressive contact stresses in the gear surface occurring during
transmission of the torque or in simple terms due to compressive fatigue on the
gear tooth surface.
c) Surface abrasive wear: It is a surface damage caused by particles trapped in
between the matting teeth surfaces. Foreign particles in the lubricant, such as dirt,
rust, weld spatter, or metallic debris can scratch the tooth surface
d) Seizure (Scoring): Caused by excessive surface pressure, high surface speed, and
inadequate supply of lubricants result in the breakdown of the oil film. This
results in excessive frictional heat and overheating of the meshing teeth. The
particles of softer tooth are ‘welded’ to the surface of other metal.
e) Plastic deformation: Occur on the teeth of heavily loaded low speed wheels,
mainly because of low hardness of tooth surface

11. STRESSES ON SPUR GEAR TEETH

The two primary failure modes for gears are:

a) Tooth Breakage - from excessive bending stress, and

b) Surface Pitting/Wear - from excessive contact stress.
In both cases, we are interested in the tooth load, which we got from the torque, T. Recall that we
T 2T
compute the tangential force on the teeth as F t= = , where D is the pitch diameter.
r D

Bending Stress
The classic method of estimating the bending stresses in a gear tooth is the Lewis equation. It
models a gear tooth taking the full load at its tip as a simple cantilever beam:

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 My
Lewis Bending Stress: From;σ =
I

Ft Pd
We get the maximum bending stress, σ t=
bY
Where Pd =Diametral pitch
b=Face width
Y =Lewis form factor ,is dimensionless
F t ( W T )=Tangential force

Surface Pitting
(Contact Stress)
The most common type of surface failure is pitting which is caused by repeated high contact
stress .An expression for the maximum contact stressσ H between mating gear teeth can be
derived from the Hertz equation for two cylinders in contact

By adapting the rotation used in gearing and including a velocity factor K v the contact stress can
be found as

C p= AGMA elastic coefficient

σ H =C p
√ [ ]
Kv Ft 1 1
+
b cos ∅ r 1 r 2

∅ = pressure angle
r 1 , r 2=instantenous radii of curvature of pinion∧gear teeth

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