SPUR

GEARS
BMED UNIT 2

PRE-UNIVERSITY
ENGINEERING SCIENCES YR 2
BROWNS TOWN COMMUNITY
COLLEGE
TO BE COVERED

WHAT ARE INVOLUTE SPUR

GEARS?
PARTS OF A SPUR GEARS

GEAR CALCULATIONS
WHAT ARE SPUR GEARS?

• Spur gears are a type of cylindrical gear, with shafts that are parallel
and coplanar, and teeth that are straight and oriented parallel to the

shafts. They’re arguably the simplest and most common type of gear

easy to manufacture and suitable for a wide range of applications.

WHAT ARE SPUR GEARS?

• The teeth of a spur gear have an involute profile and mesh one tooth at a time.
The involute form means that spur gears only produce radial forces (no axial

forces), but the method of tooth meshing causes high stress on the gear teeth

and high noise production. Because of this, spur gears are typically used for

lower speed applications, although they can be used at almost any speed.
WHAT ARE SPUR GEARS?

• An involute gear tooth has a profile that is the involute of a circle, which means that as two
gears mesh, they contact at a single point where the involutes meet. This point moves

along the tooth surfaces as the gears rotate, and the line of force (known as the line of

action) is tangent to the two base circles. Thus, the gears adhere to the fundamental law of

gearing, which states that the ratio of the gears’ angular velocities must remain constant

throughout the mesh.

WHAT ARE
SPUR GEARS?
WHAT ARE SPUR
GEARS?
PARTS OF A SPUR GEAR
PARTS OF A SPUR
GEAR
• Addendum: The height of the tooth projects
beyond the pitch circle.
• Backlash: The clearance between two mating
teeth of separate gears.
• Chordal thickness: Tooth thickness measured
along a chord that runs through the points
where the pitch circle crosses the tooth profile.
• Chordal addendum: The distance
between a chord that passes through the
points where the pitch circle crosses the
tooth profile and the tooth tip.
• Base circle: A theoretical circle used to
generate the involute curve when creating
tooth profiles.
• Center distance: The distance between
two gears, measured from the center on
the shaft of one gear to the center shaft of
the mating gear. This can be roughly
determined by taking the radius of each
spur gear of the spur gears and adding
them up.
• Circular pitch: Measurement of the pitch circle
arc length from one point on a tooth to the
same point on the adjacent tooth.
• Circular thickness: The thickness of the tooth
at the pitch circle.
• Clearance: The space between one gear
minor diameter and the mating gears major
diameter.
• Dedendum: Depth of the tooth between
the pitch circle and the minor diameter.
Generally greater than the addendum of
the mating gear to provide clearance.
• Diametral pitch: Ratio of the number of
teeth to the pitch diameter.
• Fillet: The small radius that connects the
tooth profile to the root circle.
• Module: The ratio of the reference
diameter of the gear divided by the
number of teeth. The module is the metric
equivalent to diametral pitch.
• Outside diameter: The diameter of the
addendum circle of the circle along with
the outermost points of the teeth of a spur
gear. This measurement is the major
diameter of the gear.
• Pinion: The smaller-sized gear in any
meshed pair.
• Pitch circle: The circle is derived from a series of
teeth and a certain diametrical division. The circle
in which tooth spacing or profiles are set from
which tooth proportions are created. The speed of
the gear is measured here.
• Pitch diameter: Is the diameter of the pitch circle.
The angular speed of spur gear is measured here.
This is also a critical component in determining the
center distances between mating spur gears.
• Pitch point: The point of tangency of the
pitch circles of a pair of mating gears.
• Pressure angle: The angle at a division
point between the pressure line, which is
the line of action, and a line perpendicular
to the centerline. And the plane is tangent
to the division surface.
• Root Diameter: The diameter at the base
of the tooth space.
• Ratio: Ratio of the numbers of teeth on
mating gears.
• Root Circle: The circle that passes
through the bottom of the tooth spaces.
• Velocity ratio: Ratio of input gear revolutions to
output gear revolutions within a specified
amount of time.
• Whole depth: The height of the tooth from
major diameter to the minor diameter of a gear.
• Working Depth: The depth to which a tooth
extends into the space between teeth on the
mating gear.