ME321: Design of Machine Elements

(Section B)
Course Instructor:
Dr. Deepak Kumar,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Mechanical Engineering,
IIT BHU Varanasi, India
Email: [email protected]
What is Mechanical Drive System?
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❖ A mechanism intended to transmit mechanical power over a certain distance.

❖ It is required between the prime mover and the part of the operating machine.

Key Reasons for Using Mechanical Drives

❖ Transmit force
❖ Modify the direction of force
❖ Increase magnitude or efficiency of force/torque
Types of Mechanical Drive

Belt Drive

Chain Drive

Gear Drive Friction Drive Rope Drive

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Differences Between Gear, Belt, and Chain Drives

Gear Drive Belt Drive Chain Drive

Working principle Power transmitted through Power transmitted through Power transmitted through
interlocking gear teeth. friction between belt and pulley. interlocking links in a chain.

Slip No slip (positive drive). May experience slip under high No slip (positive drive).
load.

Efficiency High efficiency (~99%). Moderate efficiency (~90%). High efficiency (~96%).

Cost High initial cost Low initial cost Moderate initial cost

Maintenance cost Requires lubrication and Minimal maintenance required. Requires lubrication and
precise alignment. tensioning.

Noise Operates quietly. Operates quietly. Can be noisy.

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Differences Between Gear, Belt, and Chain Drives

Gear Drive Belt Drive Chain Drive

Load Capacity Suitable for high load and Suitable for low to moderate Suitable for high load but
speed applications. loads. moderate speed applications

Durability Long-lasting with proper Prone to wear and tear; limited Durable but susceptible to
maintenance. lifespan. elongation over time.

Speed Ratio Wide range of speed Limited speed ratios. Limited speed ratios.
Range ratios.

Applications Gearboxes, clocks, Conveyors, small machinery, Bicycles, motorcycles,

automobiles. agricultural equipment. industrial lifting equipment.
Selection of proper mechanical drive
1. Centre distance b/w two shafts

For long centre distance Flat belts and Roller chains

Comparatively shorter distance V- belts

Smallest centre distance Gear drives

www.forbo.com www.chemverse.in www.fractory.com/chain-drives\

Selection of proper mechanical drive
2. Velocity ratio
➢ Flat belt drive is not recommended where constant speed is desirable.

➢ In case of chain drives, the velocity ratio is not constant during one revolution of
the sprocket wheel due to “Polygonal effect”.

➢ Gear drives are preferred in applications which require constant speed.

3. Shifting mechanism:
“To obtain different speeds such as in headstock of lathe or automotive gearbox”

➢ It is not possible to use the shifting mechanism in case of V- belts or chain drives.
Selection of proper mechanical drive
4. Maintenance of drives:
➢ Maintenance of belt drives is relatively simple.

➢ In chain and gear drives, lubrication is an important consideration in maintenance.

5. Cost:
➢ Flat belt drive is the cheapest,

➢ V-belt & chain drives are comparatively costly, and

➢ Gear drives are costliest.

 Gear Drives
“Toothed wheels or multilobed cams, which transmits power and
motion from one shaft to another shaft by means of successive
engagement of teeth.”

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 Gear Drives
Advantages:
❖ It is a positive drive and the velocity ratio remains constant.

❖ Compact construction because centre distance is less.

❖ Can transmit very large power (beyond the range of belt or chain drives)

❖ Can transmit motion at very low velocity (not possible with belt drives)

❖ Efficiency is almost 99%.

❖ Changing the velocity ratio over a wide range using gearbox.

 Gear Drives
Disadvantages:
❖ It is quite costly.

❖ Maintenance cost is also high.

❖ Manufacturing process is complicated and highly specialized.

❖ Lubrication and cleanliness is often required.

❖ Require precise alignment of the shafts.

 Classification of Gear Drives
2. Helical Gear
1. Spur Gear

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3. Bevel Gear 4. Worm Gear

 Classification of Gear Drives
1. Spur Gear

❖ Teeth are parallel to shaft axis.

❖ Used only when two shafts are parallel to each other.

❖ Gear teeth are remains identical along the width of the

gear wheel

❖ Spur gear imposes radial loads on the shafts.

 Classification of Gear Drives
2. Helical Gear
❖ Teeth are cut an angle with shaft axis.

❖ It has an involute profile.

❖ The magnitude of helix angle of the pinion and gear is

same, however the hand of the helix is opposite.
❖ A right handed pinion meshes with a left hand gear and
vice-versa.

❖ Helical gear impose radial and thrust loads on shafts.

Classification of Gear Drives
Herringbone Gear:
A special type of helical gear, consisting of two helical gears with the opposite hand of helix.

Advantage:
❖ The construction results in equal and
opposite thrust reactions, balancing each
other and imposing no thrust load on the
shaft.
 Classification of Gear Drives
3. Bevel Gear
❖ Have a shape of truncated cone.

❖ Size of the gear tooth, including thickness and height,

decreases towards the apex of the cone.

❖ Used for shafts which are at right angle to each other.

❖ The tooth of the bevel gears can be cut straight or spiral.

❖ Imposes radial and thrust loads on the shafts.

Classification of Gear Drives
4. Worm Gear
❖ Consists of a worm and worm wheel.

❖ Worm is in form of a threaded screw.

❖ The threads on the worm can be single or multi-start and

usually have a small lead.

❖ Used where shaft axes do not intersect and are

perpendicular to each other.

❖ Worm imposes high thrust load, worm wheel imposes high radial load on the shafts.
 Selection of Gears
Factors considered while selecting the gear:
1. Layout of shaft
2. Speed reduction
3. Cost
4. Other factors
 Selection of Gears
Factors considered while selecting the gear:
1. Layout of shaft

❖ Spur Gears: Simple and efficient for parallel shafts.

❖ Helical Gears: Smooth and quieter operation, suitable for high-speed

applications.

❖ Bevel Gears: Used for intersecting shafts.

❖ Worm Gears: Compact, used for high torque and low-speed applications.
 Selection of Gears
Factors considered while selecting the gear:
2. Speed reduction (w1/w2)

❖ For single pair of spur or helical gears: 6:1 - 10:1

❖ For bevel gear: 1:1 - 3:1

❖ For worm gear: 60:1 - 100:1 (widely used in material handling equipment)
 Selection of Gears
Factors considered while selecting the gear:
3. Cost:

❖ Spur gear is cheapest among all.

❖ The manufacturing of helical, bevel and worm gears is a specialized and costly
operation.
 Selection of Gears
Factors considered while selecting the gear:
4. Other factors:

❖ Helical or herringbone gears are chosen over spur gears for quieter operation.

❖ Gears with rolling contact (e.g., spur or helical gears) generally have higher
efficiency than those with sliding contact (e.g., worm gears).

❖ High-efficiency gears are essential in power-critical applications to minimize

energy losses.
Laws of Gearing (LoG)

● The interaction between gear teeth is governed by specific laws to ensure smooth
and uniform motion transfer.
● These laws form the foundation of gear design and analysis.

“The common normal at the point of contact between two mating gear teeth
must always pass through the fixed point (pitch point) on the line of centers in
order to achieve constant velocity ratio.”
Laws of Gearing (LoG)

“The common normal at the point of

contact between two mating gear teeth
must always pass through the fixed point
(pitch point) on the line of centers in order
to achieve constant velocity ratio.”
Laws of Gearing (LoG)

❖ It has been found that only involute (mostly used) and cycloidal (less used) curves
satisfy the fundamental law of gearing.
❖ The shape of the teeth must ensure that the motion transmitted between gears is
conjugate, i.e., the relative motion is purely rolling at the pitch circles.
A. Involute Curve

Consider taut/tight string is rolled assumed around a fixed pulley or cylinder.

“The locus of the end point of a taut (stretched)

string as it is unwrapped around a
cylinder/pulley is called involute curve.”
A. Involute Curve

Properties:

● The string is always tangent to the base

circle.
● A tangent to the involute is always normal
to the string, which is instantaneous radius
of curvature of the involute curve.
A. Involute Curve

Construction:

1. Draw a circle with a radius (r) and mark its center as C.

2. Divide the circle into equal parts (say 8).
3. Name these points as 0, 1, 2, 3,... moving counter-clockwise from bottom point.
4. Draw tangents at each of these division points 1, 2,...
5. Draw a horizontal straight line from bottom point of base circle to left.
6. Mark a length of 2*pi*r on it and divide into 8 equal parts
A. Involute Curve

Parametric equation of an involute curve:

x = r (cos + sin )
y = r (sin - cos ) (x,y)
B. Cycloid Curve

“Cycloid is the curve traced by a point on the circumference of a circle which rolls without
slipping on a fixed straight line.”
B. Cycloid Curve

Construction:
1. Draw a circle of the given radius (assume).
2. Draw a horizontal straight line (the path along which the circle rolls) called base line.
3. Divide the circumference of the circle into equal parts
4. Mark a length equal to the circumference of the circle on the base line.
5. Divide this length into the same number of equal parts as the circle.
6. From each division point on the base line draw vertical lines upward.
B. Cycloid Curve

Parametric equation of an cycloid curve:

x = r ( - sin )
y = r (1 - cos )
C. Epicycloid Curve

“An epicycloid is a curve traced by a point

on the circumference of a circle that rolls
outside of another circle.”
D. Hypocycloid Curve
r

“A hypocycloid is a curve traced by a point

on the circumference of a small circle that
P
rolls inside a larger circle.”
R
Gear Tooth Profiles
Cycloidal Gear Teeth Profile

Involute Gear Teeth Profile

Diagram of mating of gears
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Diagram of mating of gears
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Diagram of mating of gears
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 Involute Gear Teeth Cycloidal Gear Teeth
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● Face and flank are made with same ● Face are made with epicycloid and flank
involute curve. are made with hypocycloid curve.

● Pressure angle remains constant ● Pressure angle varies. It is maximum at

throughout the engagement of gears. the start & end of engagement and is
zero at pitch point.
● This give smooth power transmission,
less noise and less wear. ● Hence more noise and more wear.

● Easy to manufacture the involute gear ● In cycloidal gear two separate curves are
teeth as same curve is required to required to manufacture the face and the
generate face and flank of the gear. flank of gear teeth, resulting in higher
cost.
 Involute Gear Teeth Cycloidal Gear Teeth
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● Involute gear teeth are weaker than ● Cycloidal teeth have wider flank therefore
cycloidal gear teeth. cycloidal gears are stronger than involute
gear teeth for the same pitch.
● In case of involute gears, both
surfaces in contact are convex, ● In cycloidal gear the contact takes place
therefore higher wear in this case. between convex face and concave flank
hence less wear due to type of contact
● The disadvantage with involute teeth factor.
is that interference occurs with
pinions having lesser number of teeth. ● In cycloidal gear there is no interference at
all. But this advantage is outweighed by
greater simplicity and flexibility of involute
gears.
Terminology of Gear
41

Teeth

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 Terminology of Gear
42

Teeth
Pinion: A pinion is the smaller of two mating gears.

Gear: A gear is the larger of the two mating gears.

Velocity ratio: It is defined as the ratio of input angular velocity to the output angular
velocity.

Pitch circle or Pitch surface: Pitch surfaces of gears are imaginary planes or cylinders that
roll together without slipping.
● The pitch circles of a pair of mating gears are tangent to each other.
● The size of the gear is usually specified by the pitch circle diameter (d).

Pitch point: The pitch point is a point on the line of centres of two gears at which two pitch
circles of mating gears are tangent to each other.
 Terminology of Gear
43

Teeth
Base circle: Base circle is an imaginary circle from which the involute curve of the tooth
profile is generated.
● The base circles of the two mating gears are tangent to the pressure line.

Addendum circle: The addendum circle is an imaginary circle that borders the tops of gear
teeth in the cross-section.

Addendum (ha): It is the radial distance between the pitch circle and the addendum circle.

Dedendum circle: The dedendum circle is an imaginary circle that borders the bottom of
spaces between teeth in the cross-section. It is also called root circle.

Dedendum (hf): It is the radial distance between pitch and the dedendum circles.
 Terminology of Gear
44

Clearance (c): TheTeeth

clearance is the amount by which the dedendum of a given gear exceeds
the addendum of its mating teeth.

Working depth (hk): It is the depth of engagement of two gear teeth ie. sum of their
addendums.

Whole depth:
h = a + d = hk + c

Centre distance:
O1O2 = ½(d1 + d2)

Pressure angle: The angle between line of action (CT to base circles) and CT to the pitch
circles.
● It is also called angle of obliquity.
 Terminology of Gear
45

Contact ratio: TheTeeth

number of pairs of teeth that are simultaneously engaged is called
contact ratio.
● The contact ratio is always greater than 1.
● The greater the contact ratio, the smoother the action of gears.
● The contact ratio for smooth transfer of motion is usually taken as 1.2.

Circular pitch (pc): The circular pitch is the distance measured along the pitch circle
between two similar points on adjacent teeth.
pc = πD/z

Module (m): Defined as the ratio of pitch diameter to the number of teeth.
m = D/z

Diametral pitch (Pd): Defined as the ratio of number of teeth to the pitch diameter.
Pd = 1/m = z/D
Gears having same pitch dia (D) but different modules
46
Comparison b/w Circular Pitch, Diametral Pitch, and Module 47

Mathematical Units Significance

Expression

Circular pc= πD/z mm or inch ● Determines tooth spacing along the pitch circle.
Pitch ● Essential for proper meshing.

Diametral Pd= z/D teeth per ● Defines the size of teeth in imperial units (FPS).
Pitch inch ● A higher diametral pitch indicates smaller teeth for a
given diameter, while a lower diametral pitch indicates
larger teeth.
● Used in industries with inch units.

Module m = D/z mm ● Metric (MKS) equivalent of diametral pitch.

● Widely used in international gear design.
For a pair of gears to mesh correctly, they must have the same: 48

(i) Module (m = D/z)

(ii) Pressure angle (ɸ)
(iii) Circular pitch (pc = πD/z)

Problem 1. A pair of spur gears consist of a 20 teeth

machine with a 120 teeth gear. The module is 4 mm.
Calculate the

a) Centre distance
b) Addendum and dedendum
c) Tooth thickness
d) Bottom clearance
e) Whole depth
f) Gear ratio
 49

Problem 2. A gear drive consists of two gears, A and B, and has a velocity ratio of 1.50.
Gear A, the smaller of the two gears, revolves at 126 rpm in the clockwise direction, and has
28 teeth. If the gears have a module of 2 mm, determine:

a) The number of teeth on Gear B.

b) The pitch (reference) diameters for the two gears.
c) The addendum.
d) The dedendum.
e) The circular pitch.
f) The tooth thickness.
g) The speed of Gear B.
h) The theoretical centre distance of the two gears.
 Terminology of Gear
50

Line of action: It is Teeth

the common tangent to the base circles of mating gears.
● The force is transmitted from the driving gear to the the driven gear along this line.

Arc of contact: The arc of contact is the arc of the pitch circle through which a tooth moves
from the beginning to the end of contact with mating tooth.

Arc of approach: The arc of approach is the arc of the pitch circle through which a tooth
moves from its beginning of contact until the point of contact arrives at the pitch point.

Arc of recess: The arc of recess is the arc of pitch circle through which a tooth moves from
the contact at the pitch point until the contact ends.
Path of contact: 51

“The path traced by the contact point of a pair of teeth profiles.”

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Path of contact: 52

“The path traced by the contact point of a

pair of teeth profiles.”

Length of path of contact = KL

KL = Length of path of approach (KP) +
Length of path of recess (PL)

KL = KP + PL
= (KN - PN) + (ML - MP)

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 Arc of contact: 53

“The arc of contact is the distance travelled

by a point on either pitch circle of the two
wheels during the period of contact of a pair
of teeth.”

Length of arc of contact = Length of arc GH

Length of arc GH = Length of arc of

approach (arc GP) + Length of arc of recess
(arc PH)

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 Arc of contact: 54

arc GP = Length of path of contact / cos(ɸ)

arc PH = Length of path of recess / cos(ɸ)

arc GH = arc GP + arc PH

Length of arc of contact = Length of path of

contact / cos(ɸ)

arc GH = KL / cos(ɸ)

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