Research on spur face gear by electrochemical machining based on the complex surface mesh

Face gear drives exhibit smooth transmission, low noise, and insensitivity to pinion axial installation error. Nonorthogonal face gear pairs enable torque transmission and speed variation under diverse shaft intersection angles, thus expanding their engineering applicability. At present, mathematical modeling of face gears generally considers only the tooth flank surface, while neglecting the tooth bottom surface. This leads to missing data in partial regions of the accurate tooth geometry of face gears. This paper focuses on the precise modeling algorithm and grinding methodology for the full tooth surface of nonorthogonal face gears. The tooth surface generation principle is analyzed, and the meshing kinematics between the grinding wheel (acting as the generating gear) and the nonorthogonal face gear are established. The full tooth surface is divided into five regions, and boundary conditions are defined separately for each region. Mathematical expressions for the generating gear and the full tooth surface of the nonorthogonal face gear are derived. The parameter boundaries for dish-wheel grinding are determined to guarantee full-tooth-surface completion. According to the common gear grinding machine configuration, the kinematic coordinate system for dish-wheel grinding is formulated, and virtual machining and grinding test are implemented. Comparative results demonstrate that the theoretical tooth surface matches the virtual machining outcome without noticeable deviation, validating the accuracy of the full tooth surface modeling and grinding motion. In this study, the proposed grinding method overcomes the limitation that non-orthogonal face gear grinding can only be performed on a few dedicated machine tools, thereby further expanding the application scope of face gear grinding technologies.

In order to resolve the issues of low efficiency and poor precision in the traditional finishing process of hardened internal gears, a method is proposed for calculating the profile curves of a drum-shaped grinding tool suitable for mass finishing of hardened internal gears. Additionally, the impact of drum-shaped grinding tool installation errors on the tooth surface deviation of internal gears is analyzed. Firstly, the processing principle for the generation grinding of internal gears by the drum-shaped grinding tool is introduced. Based on differential geometry, meshing theory, and two-degree-of-freedom enveloping method, a mathematical model is developed for the generation grinding of internal gears. Profile curves of the drum-shaped grinding tool are obtained by solving the meshing equation between the drum-shaped grinding tool and the internal gear. Then, the tooth surface equation for the internal gear is derived in the presence of drum-shaped grinding tool installation errors. By discretizing the error tooth surface of the internal gear, the average normal deviation of the tooth surface is calculated. In the end, the distribution of normal deviation on the tooth surface of the internal gear with different drum-shaped grinding tool installation errors is acquired, and the influence of four kinds of installation errors on the tooth surface of the internal gear is analyzed. The sensitive direction is identified for drum-shaped grinding tool installation errors on the tooth surface of the internal gear. Consequently, this research provides a calculation method for the drum-shaped grinding tool fit for high-precision and high-efficiency finishing of mass-produced hardened internal gear and offers a reference for correcting deviation in the tooth surface of internal gear with installation errors of the drum-shaped grinding tool.

In the measurement process of the large, complex surface, due to the errors of the installation, the errors of the machine bed itself and other factors, the probe can be over pressed. The situation of measuring interruption can be occurred. In the paper, take the measurement of the spiral bevel gear for example, by using of the gear meshing theory and differential geometry, through a series of coordinate transformations, the coordinates of the tooth surface grid nodes are calculated. Through measuring the tooth surface of the spiral bevel gear by using of Gear Measuring Center(GMC) and 3D scanning probe system, the follow-up control strategy of continuous scanning measurement based on the constant measuring force was proposed. The measurement and evaluation of the tooth surface were achieved through continuous scanning motion along the measurement path planned. In the measurement process, the measurement path was planned according to the theoretical models. The offset values of the probe were real-time detected, the constant deformation of the probe was ensured through controlling the motion of X,Y,Z axes. The mathematical model of the relationship between the velocity of each axis and the deformation vector of the probe was established. The continuous scanning measurement along the path planned based on the constant measuring force can be implemented. The requirement of the steady-state errors and real-time were meted by using of PID control strategy of subsection variable parameters. The method was finally simulated and experimented. The results showed that the occurrence of unexpected interruption in the measuring process can be effectively solved. It plays an important role for the highly-efficient and highly-precise measurements of the tooth surface.

A general mathematical model for the generated gear tooth surfaces of spiral bevel and hypoid gears is established based on the three-axis CNC bevel gear machine. According to the principle and the method for the function-oriented design of point-contact tooth surfaces, the locus of spatial tooth contact points on the tooth surface is described on the axial plane of the gear, and then the detailed formulae for the design with the generated gear are derived from the mathematical model. The mathematical model and the formulae can be used in the function-oriented design of point-contact tooth surfaces of spiral bevel and hypoid gears with the gear generated in different types on both the three-axis CNC bevel gear machine and the conventional cradle one.

In order to ensure the transmission precision of spur face gears whose surfaces are a kind of complex space curved surface and their representation accuracy of meshing engagement, a section lofting method to establish exact tooth surface model based on complex tooth surface grid planning principle is proposed. First, the coordinates on the tooth surface are planned. Then, a tooth surface model is established with two different types of section lofting methods according to the planned coordinates. Meanwhile, the maximal chord error of each lofted tooth facial line is measured so as to quantitatively describe the precision of the tooth facial lines and surface model. Experimental results demonstrate that an exact tooth surface model could be constructed with the methods. Moreover, it would be better to utilize the section lofting method that lofts along tooth root or tooth top.

Purpose During the oil lubrication process of aviation herringbone gears, lubricating oil is injected into and spreads around the tooth surface. Its spreading characteristics directly affect the lubrication state and transmission efficiency of gears. This study aims to investigate the effect of changing the injection parameters and gear operating conditions on the oil film deposition during injection lubrication. Design/methodology/approach The computational fluid dynamics method was used to establish the computational domain for the simulation and optimization using an orthogonal test. The oil film spreading and thickness of the tooth surface were calculated with the change in gear speed, fuel injection distance and fuel injection speed. Optimized oil injection lubrication parameters were obtained, and design ideas were provided for the oil injection lubrication analysis of aviation herringbone gears. Findings Under different operating conditions, such as varying the injection speed, gear rotational speed and injection distance, there were differences in the distribution of the lubricating oil film formed on the tooth surface. The thickness of the oil film decreases as the distance from the injection port increases. The thickness of the oil film deposition can be increased by increasing the injection velocity and reducing the gear rotation speed. The injection distance had a relatively small effect on the spreading thickness of the deposited oil film, affecting only the dynamic spreading process of oil film deposition. Furthermore, the simulation results are compared with the analytical calculation results, and finally the experimental verification is carried out. Originality/value Oil spray lubrication characteristics are important for achieving precise gear lubrication designs in the aerospace field. Peer review The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/ILT-08-2023-0250/

The manufacturing error of spiral bevel gear tooth surface has a great influence on transmission efficiency and gear life. The error of the gear tooth surface needs to be measured accurately and fed back to the machine tool to adjust the parameters. When measuring the spiral bevel gear using a gear measuring machine, combined with the measurement theory of the tooth flank of spiral bevel gear, this paper proposed a method to compensate the inclination error in the measurement result precisely. Based on the iterative search method, a precision matching method for the theoretical and the measured tooth surface of the spiral bevel gear was designed to calculate the compensation results. The experimental results show that the inclination errors included in tooth surface measurement results reduced from more than 3 μm to less than 0.5 μm, and more than 70% of the errors are compensated by the proposed method. The accuracy of the measurement results improved significantly after compensation, and furthermore, it can provide a more accurate basis for the adjustment of machine tool parameters in the manufacturing process.

As a complex space enveloped surface, the tooth surface of dual-lead helical gear enveloping hourglass worm is characteristic with difference tooth profile, unequal pitch and variable tooth thickness. To grasp the geometry characteristics and precision manufacturing method of it, the analytical method for toroidal helix is presented. The mathematical model of toroidal helix is developed, and the geometry characteristics of helix angle, axial tooth thickness, and tooth surface undercutting are analyzed. The helix angle of toroidal helix presents the convex shape, and the undercutting characteristic is affected by the pressure angle, helix angle, transmission ratio, and normal modulus. Based on the toroidal helix of tooth surface, the precision manufacturing method is proposed, and the measuring method is developed. The hourglass worm sample was manufactured and measured, and the transmission accuracy of hourglass worm drive is tested. The results show that the manufacturing and measuring method of toroidal helix is effective and feasible.

Gear Geometry and Applied Theory, second ed., F.L. Litvin, A. Fuentes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2004)

Conical gear is an involute gear having a cone angle. When the conical gears are meshed on the intersecting axis or nonintersecting- nonparallel axis, the contact between tooth surfaces is a point contact. So the tooth surface strength is generally small. It is the Concave conical gear that was developed in order to overcome this weak point. Its tooth surface is a curved surface having the reverse crowning on the tooth surface of the conical gear. Conventionally, this tooth surface has been generated by the conical shaped wheel. By this method, however, it is not necessarily easy to make an ideal tooth surface. Therefore, we devised a new rack for generating the concave conical gear. This is the rack in which the tooth thickness of normal rack is corrected in the direction of the tooth trace. We obtained the theoretical tooth surface generated by the new rack. And, we made the gear having the theoretical tooth surface by the five axis machining center. In this research, first we developed a coordinate calculation method of the theoretical tooth surface, and next a 3D model, and finally an optimal tool path by using CAM. And we measured the curved line of the tooth surface in the plane of principal radii of curvature of the test gear and confirmed that this line agrees well with the ideal curved line. From the above results, the validity of this design and production system is confirmed.

Contact pattern measurement is commonly applied to assess gear transmission and meshing performance in aviation spiral bevel gear (ASBG) manufacturing enterprises. However, these patterns cannot be directly segmented and obtained from point clouds or images because each tooth of the spiral bevel gear has complex 3D spiral surface and texture information. Moreover, research on the high-precision 3D colour reconstruction of spiral gear tooth surfaces is relatively rare. Aimed at these problems, the current work proposed a high-precision 3D colour reconstruction method of spiral bevel gear. This method is based on the fusion of the image and point-cloud information. It includes two core steps to satisfy the practical demands of high precision and high efficiency. First, dense point clouds of the 3D calibration block are converted to a plane using the bird’s eye view method for corner detection. Second, the corners are quickly and accurately detected using a two-stage corner detection algorithm based on the inherent geometric features of the calibration block. The identified corners are then used to solve the transformation matrix from the pixel coordinate system to the line laser coordinate system. Image textures can be precisely projected and fused onto a 3D geometry for the coloured reconstruction of the gear tooth surface on the basis of this transformation matrix. The proposed method was validated by applying it to the 3D colour reconstruction of tooth surfaces of 10 distinct types of ASBGs. The experimental results demonstrated that the re-projection error of the proposed method is less than 0.1 millimetres. The minimal margin of error enables high-precision 3D colour reconstruction of the spiral bevel gear tooth surface. Compared to other classic 3D colour reconstruction methods, the proposed method achieves superior accuracy and efficiency. An experimental device was also developed for the 3D colour reconstruction of the tooth surface of ASBGs, as illustrated in figure 1.

The advantages of the five-axis flank milling of (developable) ruled surfaces include that (1) the machined surfaces could be very accurate and smooth and (2) the machining efficiency is high. Currently, spiral bevel gears are machined on the machine tools specially used for gear manufacturing. The disadvantages are that the cost is high for small batch, prototype, or repair. If a small group of spiral bevel gears are needed, the current methods are not valid. Thus, it is expected to machine the gears on five-axis computer numerical control (CNC) milling centers. Unfortunately, when tooth surfaces are designed based on the conventional gear manufacturing methods, they cannot be accurately machined in five-axis flank milling. This work is to develop the new technique for the five-axis flank milling of spiral bevel gears. First, a new method of designing the tooth surface of spiral bevel gears with ruled surface is proposed. Second, the cutter locations and orientations are calculated for five-axis flank milling the tooth surfaces. Third, the actual tooth surfaces are accurately represented with the cutter envelope surface in five-axis flank milling. It is confirmed that the difference of the actual tooth surface and the designed tooth surface is within the tolerance. Then, a pinion is generated to mesh with the gear, and the tooth contact analysis (TCA) is conducted. The good result demonstrates that the proposed method is valid, thus it can be used in industry.

Conical involute gears used for marine transmissions are mostly helical conical involute gears. Besides these gears are not intersecting axis gears but also nonintersecting-nonparallel axis gears. The contact between tooth surfaces of a pair of gears is the point contact. Hence the tooth surface durability is generally small. In order to overcome this weak point, one of the authors invented a new type of conical gear, which is called conical Concave conical gear has higher tooth durability than the conventional conical involute gear. In this research, a new method to generate the helical Concave conical gear is presented. First the principle of generating method is introduced. Theoretical tooth surface is analyzed. Secondly test gears are ground. Tooth surfaces of the test gears are measured and compared with theoretical ones. Two tooth surfaces are in good agreement.

In order to obtain the high surface durability of power transmission gears and to promote environmental protection, the tooth surface-finishing method using a plastic material was developed. In this paper, the influence of machining condition on tooth surface texture of case-carburized gears was studied. First, the various plastic materials could be obtained by mixing the white petrolatum with the volcanic-ashes in different particle sizes Secondly, the tooth surface of case-carburized gear was finished by use of a plastic material. Thirdly, the tooth surface was investigated by using a scanning electron microscopy and a surface texture measuring instrument. From these experiments, the following results are obtained. By applying the designed tooth surface-finishing method in the case-carburized gear tooth, the randomly-rough surface after heat treatment process almost become smooth. In the case of finished tooth surface, it is found that the values of three dimensional roughness parameters decrease with the increase of finishing distance and particle size of the volcanic-ashes.

To address the issue of cutting textures formed on gear tooth surfaces during the manufacturing process, a design method is proposed where the cutting textures are distributed according to a sine function. Initially, a simplified mathematical model of the actual gear tooth surface cutting texture was constructed based on a four-axis machining center and cylindrical milling cutter. Ten design cases were created with different sine function phases, aiming to minimize angular acceleration. These cases were compared with normally processed gear pairs to identify the optimal design. Subsequently, using the established actual tooth surface model, the optimal design gear pair was compared with normally processed gear pairs through noise simulation experiments. The correctness of the simulation results was verified through vibration and noise testing experiments. The results indicated that the maximum amplitude of the first-order frequency of vibration and noise sound pressure levels decreased by 14.93% and 11.16%, respectively, validating the effectiveness of the surface cutting texture optimization method. This method provides a novel solution for reducing vibration and noise in gears.