Gear Ratios

Jacob Levine Scheidegger

What is a gear

A Gear is a machine component, which is used to transmit mechanical power from one shaft to
the other by engaging its teeth

Gears are one of the most used method of mechanical transmission with almost 100 %
efficiency.
Advantages of Gear drive

● Velocity remains constant

● Provisions for changing velocity ratios can be made with a gear box
● High Efficiency
● Used at low speeds
● Used at high torque values
● It is compact
Disadvantages

Not suitable when shafts are bent

Requires lubrication no flexibility

Loud at high speeds

Spur Gears

Used for the power transfer in the shafts which are parallel to eachother. They have straight
teeth
Helical Gears

Almost the same as spur gears but have inclined teeth and silent teeth meshing
Spiral Bevel gear

Used for power transmission in shafts that are perpendicular to each other.
Worm Gear

Sometimes known as worm and wheel, the long rod with the spiral is the worm which spins upon
a gear
Types of Gear Trains
Simple Gear Train

Gears that operate in series

Axes remain fixed

Each Gear mounted to different shaft

Compound Gear Train

● Same as Simple gear except gears can be mounted on the same axle
Reverted Gear Train

● Same as compound gear except the axis of shafts on which the first and last gear coincide
Planetary Gear Train

As the name suggest, it is a type of gear train in which at least axis of one of the participating
gears shaft.