Faculty of Engineering

University of Kragujevac

English 2 – seminar work

GEARS

Student: Professor:
Content
1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................................1

2. GENERAL CLASSLLICATION OF GEARS........................................................................2

3. BASIC FEATURES GEAR.....................................................................................................6

4. BACKLASH............................................................................................................................8

5. GEAR MATERIALS...............................................................................................................9

5.1 STEEL....................................................................................................................................9

5.2 CAST IRON.........................................................................................................................10

5.3 NON-FERROUS METALS.................................................................................................11

5.4 NON-METALS....................................................................................................................11

6. CONCLUSION......................................................................................................................11

7. REFERENCES.......................................................................................................................12
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1. INTRODUCTION
In engineering and technology the term "gear" is defined as a machine element used to
transmit motion and power between rotating shafts by means of progressive engagement of
projections called teeth (Gutin, 1994).
Invention of the gear cannnot be attributed to one individual as the development of the
toothed gearing system evolved gradually from the primitive form when wooden pins were
arranged on the periphery of simple, solid, wooden wheels to drive the opposite member of
the pair. These wheels served the purpose of gears in those days. Although the operation was
neither smooth nor quiet, these were not important considerations as the speeds were very
low, The motive power to run these systems was generally provided by treadmills which
were operated by men, animals, water wheels or wind-mills (Gutin, 1994).. Primitive forms
of gear were known to Archimedes before the Christian era. Leonardo da Vinci also used the
concept of a gear system in many of his proposed appliances and machines.In recent
times,however,inventors have concentrated their efforts to devise curves for the gear teeth
which would provide constant relative velocity of the gear tooth faces. The unique property
applicable to all these curves is that the common normal to the curves of the two teeth in
contact at their point of contact must pass through the point of contact of the two pitch circles
of the mating gears. One of such curves, the epicycloid, was proposed by the famous Danish
astronomer. Olaf Roemer (Gutin, 1994). The involute curve, which is the most common
curve used today, was presumably first suggested by the celebrated Swiss mathematician,
Leonard Euler. It was, however , Prof. Robert Willis of Cambridge University who gave a
practical shape to these curves as applied to present-day gear toothing, Charles Camus and
Philippe de Lahire are also known as the early pioneers in the field of toothed gearing (Gutin,
1994).
Gears operate in pairs, the smaller of the pair being called the "pinion" and the larger the
"gear", Usually the pinion drives the gear, and the system acts as a speed reducer and a torque
converter. The centre distance between the rotating shafts in a gear drive is normally not too
large. When the distance is comparatively large, the other power transmitting systems, such
as, belt drive, chain drive, etc. are resorted to (Gutin, 1994). Now, when the centre distance is
not the deciding factor, belt drives are fast becoming out moded and are being replaced by
gearing systems. Although belt drives have the inherent advantages of shock, load reaction
vibration absorbing capacities, their greater space requirements exposure to surroundings and
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vulnerability to slippage make the gearing systems more preferable because these systems are
positively driven, can be totally enclosed, require less space and are compact driving
arrangements. When two smooth cylinders are mounted on shifts with parallel axes and are
pressed together lengthwise, it is possible to transmit power from one shaft to the other by
friction drive (Gutin, 1994).
If there is no slippage during the contact, such rotating cylinders will ensure a smooth and
accurate transmission of angular velocity. The angular velocities (in radians per second or
revolutions per minute (rpm)) of these cylinders are inversely proportional to the diameters of
the cylinders. This relation applies if the driving and the driven cylinders are perfectly
accurate, and the cylinders are said to produce w"uniform velocity transmission." (Gutin,
1994).

2. GENERAL CLASSLLICATION OF GEARS

Depending upon the relation between the axes, shape of the solid on which the teeth are
developed, curvature of the tooth-trace and any other special features, gears are categorised
into the following types (Gutin, 1994).
Spur gears
ln a pair of mating spur gears, the axes of the component gears are parallel, that is, they are
mounted on shafts which are parallel to each other. The reference or the pitch solid is a
cylinder. The gear teeth are straight along the length and are parallel to the axis. A rack is a
straight-sided gear and can be thought of as a spur gear of infinite diameter (Gutin, 1994).

Figure 1. Spur gears (Nikolić, 2004)

Helical gears
Helical or "dry fixed" gears offer a refinement over spur gears. The leading edges of the teeth
are not parallel to the axis of rotation, but are set at an angle. Since the gear is curved, this
angling causes the tooth shape to be a segment of a helix. Helical gears can be meshed in
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parallel or crossed orientations (Gutin, 1994). The former refers to when the shafts are
parallel to each other; this is the most common orientation. In the latter, the shafts are non-
parallel, and in this configuration the gears are sometimes known as "skew gears".
A disadvantage of helical gears is a resultant thrust along the axis of the gear, which needs to
be accommodated by appropriate thrust bearings, and a greater degree of sliding friction
between the meshing teeth, often addressed with additives in the lubricant (Gutin, 1994).

Figure 2. Helical gear

(https://www.motioncontroltips.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Helical-Gears-
Feature.jpg)
Double helical gears
Or herringbone gears, overcome the problem of axial thrust presented by "single" helical
gears, by having two sets of teeth that are set in a V shape. A double helical gear can be
thought of as two mirrored helical gears joined together (Gutin, 1994). This arrangement
cancels out the net axial thrust, since each half of the gear thrusts in the opposite direction.
However, double helical gears are more difficult to manufacture due to their more
complicated shape (Gutin, 1994).

Figure 3. Herringbone gears (Nikolić, 2004)

Straight bevel gears
In this type of gearing, the axes are intersecting. The angle between the two axes, known as
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the shaft angle, is usually 90°, but it can be of other value also. The gear blank is a cone on
which teeth are generated. The teeth are straight, bnt the height of teeth gradually decreases
and the sides of teeth are tapered so that all lines, when extended, meet at a common point
called the pitch cone apex (Gutin, 1994). In case where the bevel gears are required to have
uniform clearance throughout the length of the teeth, only the pitch cones of the two gears
intersect at the apex point. Bevel gears having straight teeth but mounted on non-interesecting
axes are known as skew gears. Afler the advent of hypoid gears, these gears are seldom used
(Gutin, 1994).

Figure 4. Straight bevel gears http://www.sme.in/gearsandgears/images/helical

%20gear.png)
The teeth of a bevel gear may be straight-cut as with spur gears, or they may be cut in a
variety of other shapes. Spiral bevel gear teeth are curved along the tooth's length and set at
an angle, analogously to the way helical gear teeth are set at an angle compared to spur gear
teeth. Zerol bevel gears have teeth which are curved along their length, but not angled. It is a
patented item of the Gleason Works of USA (Gutin, 1994). Spiral bevel gears have the same
advantages and disadvantages relative to their straight-cut cousins as helical gears do to spur
gears. Straight bevel gears are generally used only at speeds below 5 m/s (1000 ft/min), or,
for small gears, 1000 r.p.m (Gutin, 1994).

Figure 5. Spiral bevel gears (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?

q=tbn:ANd9GcSZ2HfMrfLjuzN_OI94nkEqN5LwP9ONUKr6mf--0fcSHlfu58TbzA)
Hypoid gears
Hypoid gears resemble spiral bevel gears except the shaft axes do not intersect. The pitch
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surfaces appear conical but, to compensate for the offset shaft, are in fact hyperboloids of
revolution. Hypoid gears are almost always designed to operate with shafts at 90 degrees.
Depending on which side the shaft is offset to, relative to the angling of the teeth, contact
between hypoid gear teeth may be even smoother and more gradual than with spiral bevel
gear teeth (Gutin, 1994). Also, the pinion can be designed with fewer teeth than a spiral bevel
pinion, with the result that gear ratios of 60:1 and higher are feasible using a single set of
hypoid gears. This style of gear is most commonly found driving mechanical differentials;
which are normally straight cut bevel gears; in motor vehicle axles (Gutin, 1994).

Figure 6. Hypoid gears (https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?

q=tbn:ANd9GcQ66dXhLSLOKf96ARW_PieA-MY8XPcfrdi_K_mcL4xgIAM7h63VxA)
Worm gears
Worm gears resemble screws. A worm gear is usually meshed with a spur gear or a helical
gear, which is called the gear, wheel, or worm wheel (Gutin, 1994). Worm-and-gear sets are a
simple and compact way to achieve a high torque, low speed gear ratio. For example, helical
gears are normally limited to gear ratios of less than 10:1 while worm-and-gear sets vary
from 10:1 to 500:1.

Figure 7. Worm gears (https://pk.all.biz/img/pk/catalog/3856.jpeg)

A disadvantage is the potential for considerable sliding action, leading to low efficiency.
Worm gears can be considered a species of helical gear, but its helix angle is usually
somewhat large (close to 90 degrees) and its body is usually fairly long in the axial direction;
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and it is these attributes which give it screw like qualities (Gutin, 1994).
Crown gear
Crown gears or contrate gears are a particular form of bevel gear whose teeth project at right
angles to the plane of the wheel; in their orientation the teeth resemble the points on a crown.
A crown gear can only mesh accurately with another bevel gear, although crown gears are
sometimes seen meshing with spur gears. A crown gear is also sometimes meshed with an
escapement such as found in mechanical clocks (Gutin, 1994).

Figure 8. Crown gear (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61N-

pMv7tdL._SX425_.jpg)
Cage gear
A cage gear, also called a lantern gear or lantern pinion has cylindrical rods for teeth, parallel
to the axle and arranged in a circle around it, much as the bars on a round bird cage or
lantern. The assembly is held together by disks at either end into which the tooth rods and
axle are set.
Lantern gears are more efficient than solid pinions, and dirt can fall through the rods rather
than becoming trapped and increasing wear (Gutin, 1994).
Sometimes used in clocks, the lantern pinion should always be driven by a gearwheel, not
used as the driver. The lantern pinion was not initially favoured by conservative clock
makers. It became popular in turret clocks where dirty working conditions were most
commonplace. Domestic American clock movements often used them (Gutin, 1994).

3. BASIC FEATURES GEAR

n - Rotational frequency, Measured in rotation over time.
ω - Angular frequency,Measured in radians per second.
N - Number of teeth. How many teeth a gear has, an integer. In the case of worms, it is the
number of thread starts that the worm has.
Gear, wheel- The larger of two interacting gears or a gear on its own.
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Pinion -The smaller of two interacting gears (Nikolić, 2004).

Path of contact -Path followed by the point of contact between two meshing gear teeth.
Axis -Axis of revolution of the gear; center line of the shaft.
Pitch point, p - Point where the line of action crosses a line joining the two gear axes.
Pitch diameter, d - A predefined diametral position on the gear where the circular tooth
thickness, pressure angle and helix angles are defined. The standard pitch diameter is a basic
dimension and cannot be measured, but is a location where other measurements are made. Its
value is based on the number of teeth, the normal module (or normal diametral pitch), and the
Module, m - A scaling factor used in metric gears with units in millimeters whose effect is to
enlarge the gear tooth size as the module increases and reduce the size as the module
decreases. Module can be defined in the normal (mn), the transverse (mt), or the axial planes
(ma) depending on the design approach employed and the type of gear being designed.
Module is typically an input value into the gear design and is seldom calculated (Nikolić,
2004).
Pressure angle - The complement of the angle between the direction that the teeth exert force
on each other, and the line joining the centers of the two gears. For involute gears, the teeth
always exert force along the line of action, which, for involute gears, is a straight line; and
thus, for involute gears, the pressure angle is constant (Nikolić, 2004).

Figure 10. basic features gear (Nikolić, 2004)

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Outside diameter- Diameter of the gear, measured from the tops of the teeth.
Root diameter - Diameter of the gear, measured at the base of the tooth (Nikolić, 2004).
a Addendum - Radial distance from the pitch surface to the outermost point of the tooth.
= ( 0 −)⁄2
b – Dedendum - Radial distance from the depth of the tooth trough to the pitch surface. =
( − )⁄2
Whole depth - The distance from the top of the tooth to the root; it is equal to addendum plus
dedendum or to working depth plus clearance.
p Circular pitch - Distance from one face of a tooth to the corresponding face of an adjacent
tooth on the same gear, measured along the pitch circle.
Diametral pitch - Ratio of the number of teeth to the pitch diameter. Could be measured in
teeth per inch or teeth per centimeter (Nikolić, 2004).
Base circle - In involute gears, where the tooth profile is the involute of the base circle. The
radius of the base circle is somewhat smaller than that of the pitch circle.
Base pitch, normal pitch - In involute gears, distance from one face of a tooth to the
corresponding face of an adjacent tooth on the same gear, measured along the base circle
(Nikolić, 2004).

4. BACKLASH
Backlash can be generally defined as the play between a mating pair of gear teeth in
assembled condition. It is the amount by which the width of a tooth space exceeds the
thickness of the meshing tooth measured on the pitch circle.
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Figure 11. backlash (Nikolić, 2004).

This is called the circumferential or torsional, or angular backlash, and is designated as je If
the backlash is measured on the line of action, it is
termed as the normal or linear backlash. These backlashes have been shown in Fig. 11.
"Hie relation between these two types of backlashes is given later. Unless otherwise
specified, the values of backlash are given with reference to the pitch circles. Backlash is the
error in motion that occurs when gears change direction. It exists because there is always
some gap between the trailing face of the driving tooth and the leading face of the tooth
behind it on the driven gear, and that gap must be closed before force can be transferred in
the new direction (Nikolić, 2004). The term "backlash" can also be used to refer to the size of
the gap, not just the phenomenon it causes; thus, one could speak of a pair of gears as having,
for example, "0.1 mm of backlash." A pair of gears could be designed to have zero backlash,
but this would presuppose perfection in manufacturing, uniform thermal expansion
characteristics throughout the system, and no lubricant (Nikolić, 2004).

5. GEAR MATERIALS
5.1 STEEL
The different kinds of steels are the most commonly used gear material because of their
versatility to meet a whole gamut of a variety of divergent specifications along with their
easy availability and their ability to combine greater strength per unit volume coupled with
low cost per kilogram. A wide variety of steels are in use, ranging from carbon steels to high-
alloy steels. Again, carbon steels used also vary in carbon content—from low to high carbon.
The ultimate choice, of course, will depend upon such factors as strength values, required
size of gear, service conditions and other design criteria. Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon
and other elements. Because of its high tensile strength and low cost, it is a major component
used in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, automobiles, machines, appliances, and
weapons (Tanasijević, 1994).
Iron is the base metal of steel. Iron is able to take on two crystalline forms (allotropic forms),
body centered cubic and face centered cubic, depending on its temperature. In the body-
centered cubic arrangement, there is an iron atom in the center and eight atoms at the vertices
of each cubic unit cell; in the face-centered cubic, there is one atom at the center of each of
the six faces of the cubic unit cell and eight atoms at its vertices. It is the interaction of the
allotropes of iron with the alloying elements, primarily carbon, that gives steel and cast iron
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their range of unique properties (Tanasijević, 1994).

In pure iron, the crystal structure has relatively little resistance to the iron atoms slipping past
one another, and so pure iron is quite ductile, or soft and easily formed. In steel, small
amounts of carbon, other elements, and inclusions within the iron act as hardening agents that
prevent the movement of dislocations that are common in the crystal lattices of iron atoms
(Tanasijević, 1994).
The carbon in typical steel alloys may contribute up to 2.14% of its weight. Varying the
amount of carbon and many other alloying elements, as well as controlling their chemical and
physical makeup in the final steel (either as solute elements, or as precipitated phases), slows
the movement of those dislocations that make pure iron ductile, and thus controls and
enhances its qualities. These qualities include such things as the hardness, quenching
behavior, need for annealing, tempering behavior, yield strength, and tensile strength of the
resulting steel (Tanasijević, 1994). The increase in steel's strength compared to pure iron is
possible only by reducing iron's ductility.
Steel was produced in bloomery furnaces for thousands of years, but its large-scale, industrial
use began only after more efficient production methods were devised in the 17th century,
with the production of blister steel and then crucible steel. With the invention of the
Bessemer process in the mid-19th century, a new era of mass-produced steel began. This was
followed by the Siemens-Martin process and then the Gilchrist-Thomas process that refined
the quality of steel. With their introductions, mild steel replaced wrought iron (Tanasijević,
1994).
Further refinements in the process, such as basic oxygen steelmaking (BOS), largely replaced
earlier methods by further lowering the cost of production and increasing the quality of the
final product. Today, steel is one of the most common manmade materials in the world, with
more than 1.6 billion tons produced annually. Modern steel is generally identified by various
grades defined by assorted standards organizations (Tanasijević, 1994).

5.2 CAST IRON

Cast iron gears are cheap and have good damping capacity. When gears are to be of
complicated shape, cast iron may well be the only choice in certain cases. The material is
used in applications where strength is not the main criterion of material selection, as cast iron
is relatively weak and brittle compared to steel. A large amount of graphite is present in cast
iron parts and this acts as a lubricant, hindering wear of teeth. If increased load capacity and
resistance to contact stresses are desired, then spheroidal graphite or pearlitic malleable cast
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iron may be used. In recent years, sintered iron gears made by the powder metallurgical
processes from iron powder are much used in low cost machineries where strength
requirements are small. These gears have wear-resistance properties and are easy to lubricate
(Tanasijević, 1994).

5.3 NON-FERROUS METALS

Among the various non-ferrous metals used in gear manufacturing, bronze is the most
common alloy used. Various types of bronzes are used as gear materials, mainly because of
their ability to withstand heavy sliding loads which are encountered in applications such as
worm-gear sets. Also, like cast iron, bronzes are easy to cast into complicated shapes when
necessary. Phosphor bronze is generally recommended for worm-wheels which mesh with
worms of high hardness and accuracy, and is normally meant for medium loads and medium
to high speeds.Tin bronzes offer strength, resilience and hardness, and can be used for worm-
wheels for general purposes. Silicon bronzes have similar properties as phosphor bronzes.
Besides, leaded bronze, manganese bronze, aluminium bronze and nickel bronze also find
wide application as gear materials.Best operational results from bronzes are obtained when
the blanks are centrifugally cast (Tanasijević, 1994).

5.4 NON-METALS
Various types of non-metals have been widely used as gear materials since earliest times.
These materials are chiefly selected because of their quietness during service at high speed,
resilience, vibration damping ability and low cost in bulk manufacture. Non-metallic gears
are also used as timing gears and also various other classes of gearing. Such materials used
for gear making are generally reinforced phenolic moulding materials, moulded plastics like
nylon, reinforced thermosetting laminates, raw hide, resin-bonded pressed materials, hard
fabrics, etc. For rough calculation as to their strength properties and power-transmitting
capabilities, these materials can be considered to have the same properties as those of cast-
iron (Tanasijević, 1994).

6. CONCLUSION

Modern physics adopted the gear model in different ways. In the nineteenth century, James
Clerk Maxwell developed a model of electromagnetism in which magnetic field lines were
rotating tubes of incompressible fluid. Maxwell used a gear wheel and called it an "idle
wheel" to explain the electrical current as a rotation of particles in opposite directions to that
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of the rotating field lines.

More recently, quantum physics uses "quantum gears" in their model. A group of gears can
serve as a model for several different systems, such as an artificially constructed
nanomechanical device or a group of ring molecules.

7. REFERENCES
Gitin M Maitra, Gear desing, 1994.
Nikolić V.: Mašinski elementi, teorija, proračun, primeri, MF Kragujevac, 2004.
Tanasijević S.: Mehanički prenosnici (lančani prenosnici, zupčasti kaišni prenosnici,
kardanski prenosnici), JDT, Kragujevac, 1994.