See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/316816552

Optimization of Gear Design and Manufacture

Article  in  DEStech Transactions on Engineering and Technology Research · May 2017

DOI: 10.12783/dtetr/icmme2017/9140

CITATIONS READS
0 656

1 author:

Vilmos Dr Simon
Budapest University of Technology and Economics
30 PUBLICATIONS   537 CITATIONS   

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Mixed EHL in gears. View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Vilmos Dr Simon on 22 May 2018.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

2017 International Conference on Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering (ICMME 2017)
ISBN: 978-1-60595-440-0

Optimization of Gear Design and Manufacture

Vilmos SIMON*
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering,
Department of Machine and Product Design, 1111 Budapest, Műegyetem rkp. 3, Hungary
*Corresponding author

Keywords: Gears, Design, Manufacture, Machine tool setting, Tool geometry, Optimization.

Abstract. In this study a method is proposed for the optimization of the design and manufacture of
gears. Optimal modifications are introduced into gear tooth surfaces in order to improve the operating
characteristics of the gear pair, namely, to reduce the tooth contact pressure and the transmission
errors, and to decrease the sensitivity of the gear pair to errors in tooth surfaces and to the relative
positions of the mating members. The optimal modifications of gear tooth surfaces are introduced by
the application of the adequate machine tool settings and tool geometry. An optimization
methodology is applied to systematically define optimal tool geometry and machine tool settings to
simultaneously minimize tooth contact pressures and angular displacement error of the driven gear.
The use of a CNC gear manufacture machine makes it possible to perform nonlinear correction
motions for cutting the optimized gears. Effectiveness of the method was demonstrated by using a
spiral bevel gear example. Significant reductions in the maximum tooth contact pressure and in the
transmission errors were obtained.

Introduction
Numerous research works were directed towards the determination of optimal tooth surface
modifications in different types of gears and of the corresponding machine tool settings to introduce
these modifications. The goal is to improve load distribution, to reduce tooth contact pressure and
transmission errors, and to avoid edge contact of tooth surfaces. Because of the limited length of the
paper, only part of these research works is referenced [1-8].
To achieve maximum life in a gear set, appropriate bearing pattern location with low tooth contact
pressure and low loaded transmission error must coexists. Loaded transmission error is the primary
source of noise and vibration. The maximum tooth contact pressure and transmission error depend
substantially on tooth geometry. In order to reduce the tooth contact pressure and the transmission
errors, and to decrease the sensitivity of the gear pair to errors in tooth surfaces and to the relative
positions of the mating members, carefully chosen tooth surface modifications are usually applied to
the teeth of one or both mating gears. As a result of these modifications, a point contact replaces the
theoretical line contact of the fully conjugated tooth surfaces. These modifications are introduced into
the gear tooth surfaces by applying the appropriate machine tool setting for the manufacture of the
pinion and the gear and/or by using a tool with optimized geometry. The new CNC gear manufacture
machines have made it possible to perform varying correction motions during the cutting of gears. In
this paper, a method is presented to determine optimal tool geometry and optimal polynomial
functions for the conduction of machine tool setting variation in gear teeth finishing simultaneously
reducing maximum tooth contact pressure and transmission errors. The developed optimization
procedure relies heavily on the loaded tooth contact analysis for the prediction of maximum tooth
contact pressure and transmission errors. The load distribution and transmission error calculation
method employed in this study was developed by the author of this paper [9-12]. The optimization is
based on machine tool setting variation on the cradle-type generator conducted by optimal polynomial
functions and on optimal tool geometry. In the second step an algorithm is developed for the
execution of motions on the CNC hypoid generator using the relations on the cradle-type machine.

259
Effectiveness of the method was demonstrated by using a spiral bevel gear example. Significant
reductions in the maximum tooth contact pressure and in the transmission errors were obtained.

The Optimization Procedure

An optimization method is applied to systematically define optimal head-cutter geometry and
machine tool settings to simultaneously minimize maximum tooth contact pressure and angular
displacement error of the driven gear. The optimization problem to be solved is as follows:

 p (mp ) ∆φ (mp ) 
min f (mp ) = min c p ⋅ max + cφ ⋅ 2 max (1)
mp mp
 p max 0 ∆φ 2 max 0 
subject to C (mp ) = 0
where C (mp ) represents the constraints, p max 0 and ∆φ 2 max 0 are the maximum tooth contact pressure
and transmission error obtained for the initial values of manufacture parameters; c p and cφ are
non-negative weight coefficients, expressing the relative importance of p max and ∆φ 2 max ,
respectively. The maximum pressure and the maximum displacement error of the driven gear,
p max (mp ) and ∆φ 2 max (mp ) , are functions of the manufacture parameters, pari:

p max (mp ) = p max ( par1 , par2 , par3 ... parN )

(2)

∆φ 2 max (mp ) = ∆φ 2 max ( par1 , par2 , par3 ... parN )

where N is the number of manufacture parameters.

The new CNC gear manufacture machines have made it possible to perform varying correction
motions during the cutting of gears. The variations of the manufacture parameters on such a machine
(except the parameters describing the tool geometry) may be conducted by polynomial functions of
fifth-order:

2 5
pari = c10 + ci1 ⋅ (ψ −ψ 0 ) + ci 2 ⋅ (ψ −ψ 0 ) ....+ ci5 ⋅ (ψ −ψ 0 ) (3)

where ψ is the parameter of relative motion of the tool and the gear in tooth surface generation and
i = 1...N mts , where N mts is the number of machine tool settings.
The optimization problem formulated according to Eqs. (1) is a nonlinear constrained optimization
problem. Functions f (mp ) and C (mp ) are not available analytically, they exist numerically through
the load distribution calculation. Therefore, the computer simulation of load distribution must be run,
repeatedly, in order to compute the various quantities needed by the optimization algorithm. The load
distribution calculation is based on a highly nonlinear system of equations. Because of that an
approximate and iterative technique is used to perform the load distribution calculation [9-12]. This
causes that the calculation of partial derivatives for gradient-based optimization algorithms to be quite
impractical. For this reason, a nonderivative method is selected to solve this particular optimization
problem. One of the direct search methods described in Ref. [13] can be adopted. Here, the Hooke and
Jeeves pattern search method [14] is used.

260
Example: Optimization of the Design and Manufacture of a Spiral Bevel Gear Pair
A computer program was developed to implement the formulation provided above. By applying this
program the optimal tool geometry and machine tool settings were calculated and the corresponding
functions were developed for the execution of motions on the CNC hypoid generator using the
relations on the cradle-type machine. The main design data of the example spiral bevel gear pair used
in this study are: numbers of teeth 13 and 50, module 5 mm, face width 30 mm, mean spiral angle 35
deg.
y y y
m1 01 m1
y
01
Cutter T

α1
y
T1
Gear
O1

T1
u

r
M M γ δk
θ

1
O T1

b
O T1

f
1
δ0 x1
rt 1 x T1
ψ δf
1
cp
c
p
e

zm1 Om1 (c) Om1 x m1

ω

p
z

f
z 01 T1 O 01 (1)
ω
O 01
g
O 01 z
T1
O1 ψ x 01
1

ψ x 01
1

x1

z1
z 01

Figure 1. Machine tool setting for pinion teeth finishing.

xT

α0
r T1 O2
p O1
x T02
α1

0
OT
ν

r prof1
x T01
h TM

1
f il
r

MT 2
rt r prof
P

yT01
yT02

Figure 2. Head-cutter profile for pinion teeth finishing.

261
 The tooth surface modifications are introduced into the pinion by the following machine tool
settings (Fig. 1): sliding base setting, c, machine center to back, f, blank offset, g, machine root angle,
γ 1 , velocity ratio in the kinematic scheme of the machine tool for the generation of the pinion tooth
surface, i gp , and by the tool parameters: the radii of the head-cutter blade profile, rprof 1 and rprof 2 (Fig.
2), and the difference in head-cutter radii for the manufacture of the contacting tooth flanks of the
pinion and the gear, ∆rT . Therefore, the number of manufacture parameters N = 8 and the number of
machine tool settings N mts = 5 .
The load distribution calculation was performed for 21 instantaneous positions of the pinion and
the gear rolling through a mesh cycle. The tooth contact pressure distributions along the potential
contact lines for 21 instantaneous positions and for all the adjacent tooth pairs engaged for a particular
position of the mating members, for the case when no modifications are introduced into the pinion
teeth, namely straight-lined head-cutter profile and the basic values of machine tool settings are
applied, are shown in Fig. 3. In this case the pinion and gear tooth surfaces are fully conjugate. The
obtained maximum tooth contact pressure is 1155 MPa and the maximum angular displacement error
of the driven gear is 12.23 arcsec. The tooth contact pressure distribution for the case when the pinion
teeth are manufactured by the head-cutter of optimized geometry and by optimal variation in machine
tool settings governed by equation (3), is shown in Fig. 4. It can be observed that the maximum tooth
contact pressure is reduced to p max = 437.7 MPa and the maximum transmission error to
∆φ 2 max = 3.63 arc sec .

Figure 3. Tooth contact pressure distribution when the pinion and gear tooth surfaces are fully conjugate.

Figure 4. Tooth contact pressure distribution when the pinion teeth are manufactured by the head-cutter of optimized
geometry and by optimal variation in machine tool settings.

262
 Conclusions
A method for the optimization of the design and manufacture of gears is proposed. The optimal tool
geometry and machine tool settings are determined to introduce the optimal tooth modifications into
the teeth of gears in order to reduce the tooth contact pressure and transmission errors. The method is
based on machine tool setting variation on the cradle-type generator conducted by polynomial
functions of fifth-order. An algorithm is developed for the execution of motions on the CNC hypoid
generator using the optimal relations on the cradle-type machine. Effectiveness of the method was
demonstrated by using a spiral bevel gear example. On the basis of the obtained results it can be
concluded that by applying the head-cutter of optimal geometry and the optimal variation in machine
tool settings, drastic reductions in the maximum tooth contact pressure of 62% and in the
transmission error of 70% were obtained.

References
[1] V. Simon, Optimal Tooth Modifications for Spur and Helical Gears, ASME Journal of
Mechanisms, Transmissions and Automation in Design, 111 (1989) 611-615.
[2] E. Mermoz, J. Astoul, M. Sartor, J.M. Linares, A. Bernard, A New Methodology to Optimize
Spiral Bevel Gear Topography, CIRP Annuals—Manufacturing Technology, 62 (2013) 119-122.
[3] J. Astoul, E. Mermoz, M. Sartor, J.M. Linares, A. Bernard, New Methodology to Reduce the
Transmission Error of the Spiral Bevel Gears, CIRP Annuals—Manufacturing Technology, 63 (2014)
165-168.
[4] J.K. Jiang, Z.D. Fang, High-Order Tooth Flank Correction for a Helical Gear on a Six-Axis CNC
Hob Machine, Mechanism and Machine Theory, 91 (2015) 227-237.
[5] R. Tan, B. Chen, C. Peng, General Mathematical Model of Spiral Bevel Gears of Pure-Rolling
Contact, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part C - Journal of Mechanical
Engineering Science, 229 (2015) 2810-2826.
[6] Z.H. Fong, G.H. Chen, Gear Flank Modification Using a Variable Lead Grinding Worm Method
on a Computer Numerical Control Gear Grinding Machine, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design,
138 (2016) Art. No. 083302 1-10.
[7] M. Wasif, Z.C. Chen, S.M. Hasan, Determination of Cutter-Head Geometry for the Face-Milling
of Hypoid Gears, The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, February (2016)
1-10.
[8] W. Guo, S. Mao, Y. Yang, Y. Kuang, Optimization of Cutter Blade Profile for Face-Hobbed
Spiral Bevel Gears, The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 85 (2016)
209-216.
[9] V. Simon, Load and Stress Distributions in Spur and Helical Gears, ASME Journal of
Mechanisms, Transmissions and Automation in Design, 110 (1988) 197-202.
[10] V. Simon, Load Distribution in Hypoid Gears, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 122 (2000)
529-535.
[11] V. Simon, Load Distribution in Cylindrical Worm Gears, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design,
125 (2003) 356-364.
[12] V. Simon, Load Distribution in Spiral Bevel Gears, ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 129
(2007) 201-209.
[13] T.G. Kolda, R.M. Lewis, V. Torczon, Optimization by Direct Search: New Perspectives on
Some Classical and Modern Methods, SIAM Rev., 45 (2003) 385-482.
[14] R. Hooke, T.A. Jeeves, Direct Search Solution of Numerical and Statistical Problem, J. Assoc.
Comput. Mach., 8 (1961) 212-229.
263

View publication stats