MODULE 4

GEARS
 INTRODUCTION
 A gear is a rotating machine part having cut teeth, which mesh with another toothed part to transmit
torque.
 In most cases with teeth on the one gear being of identical shape, and often also with that shape on the
other gear.
 Two or more gears working in a sequence are called a gear train or, in many cases, a transmission.

GEAR GEAR TRAIN

 CONTD…
 Gears are Used to Control Power Transmission in These Ways
 Changing the direction through which power is transmitted (i.e. parallel, right angles, rotating, linear etc.).
 Changing the amount of force or torque.
 Changing RPM.
 When two gears mesh, and one gear is bigger than the other, a mechanical advantage is produced, with
the rotational speeds and the torques of the two gears differing in an inverse relationship.
ADVANTAGES DISADVANTAGES
 Transmit exact velocity ratio.  Manufacture requires special
 Transmit large power. tools and equipment.
 High efficiency.
 At high speeds chance of
vibrations and noise.
 Long life and Reliable service.
 Not suitable for transmitting
 Compact layout. motion over a large distance.
 Positive drive.
 Less maintenance.
 TYPES OF GEARS
 According to the position of axes of the shafts:
 Parallel.
 Spur Gear.
 Helical Gear.
 Rack and pinion.
 Intersecting.
 Bevel Gear.
 Non-intersecting and Non-parallel.
 Worm and worm gears.
 CONTD…
 According to the peripheral velocity of gears:
 Low velocity (less than 3 m/s).
 Medium velocity (between 3 m/s and 15 m/s).
 High velocity (more than 15 m/s).
 CONTD…
 According to the type of gearing:
 External gearing.
 Internal gearing.
 Rack and pinion.
 INTRODUCTION
 According to the position of teeth on gear surface :
 Straight.
 Inclined.
 Curved.
 SPUR GEAR
 Spur gears are the most commonly used gear type. They are characterized by teeth which are
perpendicular to the face of the gear.
 Spur gears are by far the most commonly available, and are generally the least expensive.
 Teeth is parallel to axis of rotation
 Transmit power from one shaft to another parallel shaft
 Least expensive
 APPLICATIONS OF SPUR GEAR
 In mechanical systems where we’ll require simple design, more efficient power transfer, and low speed
applications where noise does not matter, we should go for spur gears.
 Spur gears have a wide range of applications. They are used in:
 Metal cutting machines.
 Power plants.
 Marine engines.
 Mechanical clocks and watches.
 Fuel pumps.
 Washing Machines.
 Pumps.
 Rack and pinion mechanisms.
 Material handling equipment.
 Automobile gear boxes.
 Steel mills.
 HELICAL GEAR
 The teeth on a helical gear cut at an angle to the face of the gear.
 When two of the teeth start to engage, the contact is gradual, starting at one end of the tooth and
maintaining contact as the gear rotates into full engagement.
 Helical gears operate more smoothly and quietly compared to spur gears due to the way the teeth
interact.
 The typical range of the helix angle is about 15 to 30 degrees.
 Helical gears are often used in automotive transmissions by replacing spur gears.
GEAR TEMINOLOGY
 PITCH CIRCLE
 It is an imaginary circle which by pure rolling action, would give the same motion as the actual gear.
 PITCH CIRCLE DIAMETER
 It is the diameter of the pitch circle.
 The size of the gear is usually specified by pitch circle diameter, denoted by D.
 It is also known as pitch diameter.
 PITCH POINT
 It is a common point of contact between two pitch circles.
 PITCH SURFACE
 It is the surface of the rolling discs which the meshing gears have replaced at the pitch circle.
 PRESSURE ANGLE/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.
 It is usually denoted by ϕ.
 The standard pressure angles are 14½0 and 200.
 ADDENDUM
 It is the radial distance of a tooth from pitch circle to the top of the tooth.
 DEDENDUM
 It is the radial distance of a tooth from pitch circle to the bottom of the tooth.
 ADDENDUM CIRCLE
 It is the circle drawn through top of the teeth and is concentric with the pitch circle.
 DEDENDUM CIRCLE
 It is the circle drawn through the bottom of the tooth.
 Also called the root circle.
 CIRCULAR PITCH
 It is the distance measured on the
circumference of the pitch circle
form a point of one tooth to the
corresponding point on the next
tooth.
 Usually denoted by Pc.

=
 D = Diameter of the pitch circle.
 T = Number of teeth on the wheel.
 For two gears to mesh together
𝐷1 𝑇1
=
correctly, if two wheels have the 𝐷2 𝑇2
same circular pitch.
=
 DIAMETRAL PITCH
 It is the ratio of number of teeth to the pitch circle diameter in millimetres.
 Usually denoted by Pd.

=
 T = number of teeth.
 D = Pitch circle diameter.
 MODULE
 It is ratio of pitch circle diameter in millimetres to the number of teeth.
 It is usually denoted by m.

=
 Recommended series of modules in Indian Standard are 1, 1.25, 1.5, 2, 2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16 and 20.
 The modules 1.125, 1.375, 1.75, 2.25, 2.75, 3.5, 4.5, 5.5, 7, 9, 11, 14 and 18 are of second choice.
 CLEARANCE
 It is the radial distance from the top of the tooth to the bottom of the tooth in a meshing gear.
 A circle passing through the top of the meshing gear is known as Clearance circle.
 TOTAL DEPTH
 It is the radial distance between the addendum and dedendum circles of a gear.
 It is equal to sum of addendum and dedendum.
 WORKING DEPTH
 It is the radial distance from the addendum circle to the clearance circle.
 Equal to the sum of the addendum of two meshing gear
 TOOTH THICKNESS
 It is the width of the tooth measured along the pitch circle.
 TOOTH SPACE
 It is the width of the space between the two adjacent teeth measured along the pitch circle.
 FACE OF TOOTH
 It is the surface of the gear tooth above the pitch surface.
 FLANK OF TOOTH
 It is the surface of the tooth below the pitch surface.
 TOP LAND
 It is the surface of the top of the tooth.
 FACE WIDTH
 It is the width of the gear tooth measured parallel to its axis.
 PROFILE
 It is the curve formed by the face and flank of the tooth.
 FILLET RADIUS
 It is the radius that connects the root circle to the profile of the tooth .
 PATH OF CONTACT
 It is the path traced by the point of contact of two teeth from the beginning to the end of engagement.
 LENGTH OF THE PATH OF CONTACT
 It is the length of the common normal cut-off by the addendum circles of the wheel and pinion.
 ARC OF CONTACT
 It is the path traced by a point on the pitch circle from the beginning to the end of engagement of a given
pair of teeth.
 Arc of contact consists of two parts:
 Arc of approach: It is the portion of the path of contact from the beginning of the engagement to the pitch point.
 Arc of recess: it is the portion of the path of contact from the pitch point to the end of engagement.
 RACK AND PINION
 Rack and pinion gears are used to convert rotation (from the pinion) into linear motion (of the rack).
 Rack is considered to be the gear with infinite diameter.
 A perfect example of this is the steering system on many cars.
 It gives more easier and compact control.
 An optimum friction is to be maintained for the proper working.
 CONTD…
 Rack and pinion gears are available in three variations:
 Straight teeth have the tooth axis parallel to the axis of rotation. Straight teeth that run parallel to the
axis of the gear.
 Helical teeth gears provide continuous engagement along the tooth length and are often quieter and
more efficient than straight tooth gears.
 Roller pinion drives use bearing supported rollers that mesh with the teeth of that rack in order to
provide minimal to no backlash.
 BEVEL GEARS
 To transmit motion between shafts with axis intersecting with each other at certain angle.
 CONTD…
 Bevel gears are most often mounted on
shafts that are 90 degrees apart, but Bevel Gear
can be designed to work at other
angles as well.
 Bevel gears are useful when the
Pinion
direction of a shaft's rotation needs to
be changed.

Bevel gear

Gear shaft
 CONTD…
 Straight bevel gears have conical pitch surface & teeth are straight & tapering towards apex.
 Spiral bevel gears have curved teeth at an angle allowing tooth contact to be gradual and smooth.
 On straight and spiral bevel gears, the shafts must be in the same plane. If you were to extend the two
shafts past the gears, they would intersect. The hypoid gear, on the other hand, can engage with the
axes in different planes.
 Mitre gears are mating bevel gears with equal numbers of teeth and with axes at right angles.
 BACKLASH
 A clearance between mating gear teeth, is built
into speed reducers to let the gears mesh without
binding.
 To provide space for a film of lubricating oil
between the teeth. This prevents overheating and
tooth damage.
 Lack of backlash may cause noise, overloading,
overheating of the gears and bearings, and even
seizing and failure.
 The simplest and most common way to reduce
backlash in a pair of gears is to shorten the
distance between their centres.
 This moves the gears into a tighter mesh with
low or even zero clearance between teeth.
 Tooth thinning, changing addendum and
dedendum, pressure angle etc.
 Using Precision gears.

Backlash = Tooth space of one gear – Tooth thickness of mating gear

 GEAR RATIO/ VELOCITY RATIO
 It is the ratio of number of teeth of driven gear to the driving gear.
 It is also defined as the number of rotation a driver gear has to turn before the driven gear turn once.
 For example 3:1 gear ratio.
 It is also called velocity ratio which is the ratio of input speed to the output speed.
LAW OF GEARING
CONTD…

=
 CONTD…
 The angular velocity ratio is inversely proportional to the ratio of the distances of the point P from the
centres O2 and O3.
 Therefore in order to have a constant angular velocity ratio for all positions of the wheels, the point P
must be a fixed point (called pitch point) for the two wheels.
 The common normal at the point of contact between a pair of teeth must always pass through the pitch
point.
 This is the fundamental condition which must be satisfied while designing the profiles for the teeth of
the wheel.
 Also known as Law of gearing.
 TYPES OF TOOTH PROFILE
 Involute Profile: Involute curve is a curve obtained by the end of a
taut string which is wound to a circle when it is unwound.
 Imagine two involute teeth in contact, If a normal is drawn at the
contact point to the involute profile, it will be tangent to the
generating circles.
 Variation in centre distance does not affect the velocity ratio.
 Pressure angle remains constant throughout the engagements which
results in smooth running.
 Manufacturing is simple and cheap.
 CONTD…
 Cycloidal Profile: The cycloidal gear profile is a form of toothed gear
used in mechanical clocks, rather than the involute gear form used for
most other gears.
 Cycloid is the locus of a point on the circumference of a circle when it
rolls on a straight line without slipping.
 Cycloidal tooth is generally stronger than an involute tooth owing to
spreading flanks in contrast to the radial flanks of an involute tooth.
 Cycloidal teeth have longer life since the contact is mostly rolling
which results in low wear.
 Compact drives can be achieved.
 CONTD…
 Epicycloid is the locus of a point on the circumference of a circle when it rolls on the outside of
another circle .
 Hypocycloid is the locus of a point on the circumference of a circle when it rolls on the inside of
another circle .
LENGTH OF PATH OF CONTACT
 CONTD…

 CONTD…

 Consider a pinion driving the wheel.
 When the pinion rotates in clockwise direction, the contact between a pair of involute teeth begins at K
and ends at L.
 MN is the common normal at the point of contacts and the common tangent to the base circles.
 The point K is the intersection of the addendum circle of wheel and the common tangent. The point L is
the intersection of the addendum circle of pinion and common tangent.
 Length of path of contact is the length of common normal cut-off by the addendum circles of the wheel
and the pinion.
 Thus the length of path of contact is KL which is the sum of the parts of the path of contacts KP and PL.
 The part of the path of contact KP is known as path of approach and the part of the path of contact PL is
known as path of recess.
LENGTH OF ARC OF CONTACT
 Arc of contact is the path traced by a point on the pitch circle from the beginning to the end of
engagement of a given pair of teeth.
 In Fig. 12.11, the arc of contact is PF or GPH.
 Considering the arc of contact GPH, it is divided into two parts i.e. arc GP and arc PH.
 The arc GP is known as arc of approach and the arc PH is called arc of recess.
 The angles subtended by these arcs at O1 are called angle of approach and angle of recess respectively.
 CONTACT RATIO
(or number of teeth in contact)
 The contact ratio or the number of pairs of teeth in contact is defined as the ratio of the length of the
arc of contact to the circular pitch.

 The theoretical minimum value for the contact ratio is one, that is there must always be at least one
pair of teeth in contact for continuous action.
 Larger the contact ratio, more quietly the gears will operate.
 INTERFERENCE
 The phenomenon when the tip of the tooth undercuts the root on its mating gear.
CONTD…
 CONTD…
 Figure shows a pinion with centre O1, in mesh with wheel or gear with centre O2. MN is the common
tangent to the base circles and KL is the path of contact between the two mating teeth.
 If the radius of the addendum circle of pinion is increased to O1N, the point of contact L will move from L
to N. When this radius is further increased, the point of contact L will be on the inside of base circle of
wheel and not on the involute profile of tooth on wheel.
 The tip of tooth on the pinion will then undercut the tooth on the wheel at the root and remove part of
the involute profile of tooth on the wheel.
 This effect is known as interference, and occurs when the teeth are being cut.
 Similarly, if the radius of the addendum circle of the wheel increases beyond O2M, then the tip of tooth on
wheel will cause interference with the tooth on pinion. The points M and N are called interference points.
 Obviously, interference may be avoided if the path of contact does not extend beyond interference points.
 The limiting value of the radius of the addendum circle of the pinion is O1N and of the wheel is O2M.
 GEAR STANDARDISATION
 Standardization is the process of implementing and developing technical standards and compatible
technologies and processes within a given industry.
 A standardization of the gears (module, pressure angle and profile) is required to guarantee the gears
when replacing, which are made by different manufacturers, and to limit the number of different tools.
 They makes it easy for design, production, quality assurance, replacement etc.
 Standard tooth systems are:
 Full depth tooth: In which addendum is equal to module and provides a larger working depth.
 Stub tooth: Working depth smaller than that of full depth tooth. This is done by cutting short both addendum
and dedendum. This is stronger than full depth tooth and hence load carrying capacity is more. It helps to avoid
interference.
 Commonly used full depth and stub tooth gears are with pressure angles: 14.50, 200, 250
STANDARD TOOTH PROPORTIONS
 INTERCHANGEBILITY
 If one gear assembles properly with any other mating gear both chosen randomly.
 If the gears manufactured under similar conditions by any company at any corner of the world using
same standards.
 If any 2 gears of the set satisfy law of gearing.
 If they have same module, pressure angle, addendum, dedendum.
 The thickness of the tooth must be times the module.
 NON STANDARD GEARS
 Interference can be avoided by having
unequal addendum, longer addendum
for the pinion and shorter for the gear.
 These are called profile shifted gears
or non-standard gears
 To avoid undercutting of the pinion
with the suitable tooth number.
 To obtain suitable contact ratio.
 To design a gear train with a particular
centre distance.
 To increase the tooth thickness and
reduce the bending stress.
 LONG AND SHORT ADDENDUM SYSTEM
 Interference in small number of tooth pinions can be avoided by having
 Longer addendum for pinion.
 Shorter addendum for gear.
 AGMA defines the addendum modification coefficient as x1 and x2 which sums up to zero, being equal in
magnitude and opposite in sign.
 +ve coefficient applied to pinion increases the addendum and –ve coefficient applied to gear decreases
the addendum. The net effect is to shift the pitch circles away from the base circle of the pinion and
eliminate that non-involute portion of pinion tooth below the base circle.
 The standard coefficients are ±0.25 and ±0.50 which add and subtract 25% and 50% of the standard
addendum, respectively. The limit approach occurs when the pinion tooth becomes pointed.
 CENTRE DISTANCE MODIFICATION
 Centre distance can be modified by changing:
 Base circle radius
 Pitch circle radius
 Pressure angle
 Generally to modify the centre distance base circle radius and pitch circle radius are kept fixed, therefore
it needs an increase in pressure angle.
 Non standard gears allows you to enlarge or reduce centre distance within a limit.
 WORM AND WORM GEAR
 A worm drive is a gear arrangement in which a worm (which is a gear in the form of a screw) meshes
with a worm gear (which is similar in appearance to a spur gear).
 The two elements are also called the worm screw and worm wheel.
 With a single start worm, for each 360° turn of the worm, the worm-wheel advances only one tooth of
the gear wheel.
 They are used to transmit power between non-parallel and non-intersecting shafts.
 The geometry of a worm is similar to that of a power screw. Rotation of the worm simulates a linearly
advancing involute rack.
CONTD…
 CONTD…
 Axial pitch (Pa) is the distance measured axially (i.e. parallel to the axis of the worm) from a point on
one thread to the corresponding point on the adjacent thread.
 Lead (L) is the linear distance through which a point on a thread moves ahead in one revolution of the
worm.
 Lead angle (γ) is the angle between the tangent to the thread helix on the pitch cylinder and the plane
normal to the axis of the worm.
 Normal pitch (Pn) is the distance measured along the normal to the thread between two corresponding
points on two adjacent threads of the worm.
 INTERNAL GEAR
 Internal gears are used for transmitting power
between two parallel shafts.
 In these gears, annular wheels are having teeth
on the inner periphery. This makes the drive
very compact.
 In these drives, the meshing pinion and
annular gear are running in the same
direction.
 They are useful for high load and high speed
application with high reduction ratio.
 Applications of these gears can be seen in
planetary gear drives of automobile automatic
transmissions, reduction gearboxes of cement
mills, step-up drives of wind mills.