6 - Quality control of worms

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the quality control of worms. The quality assessment of worm gear drives is a multi-sided task—including the checking of the geometric sizes of the mated elements, the analysis of their meshing conditions, and the investigation of their operational characteristics. Expert evaluation of a worm gear drive is only possible after completing a series of tasks and evaluating their results. The assessment should cover a number of areas such as checking the geometry of the worm, investigating the meshing conditions, and checking the more important characteristics of the operation. The teeth of the worm can be checked by using a special checking device made for the checking of hobs, by using a universal device for the complex checking of worm gear drives, or by using universal measuring instruments or devices providing measurement of worm thread lines. The level of automation of the measuring equipment determines to a great extent the methods of checking for different surfaces and the design of the software handling the data measured. In developing the measurement program, it should be an aim that the geometric checking is carried out at uniform points independent of the type of helicoidal surface.