Computerized generation and gear mesh simulation of straight bevel gears manufactured by dual interlocking circular cutters

Abstract

The computerized generation of straight bevel gears manufactured by dual interlocking circular cutters is developed, and the results of the simulation of meshing and contact as well as finite element analysis are shown. The geometry of the crown-rack that theoretically generates the reference octoidal gear is described and, based on it, the positioning of the generating interlocking circular cutters is determined. The influence of the radius of the cutting disks on the maximum bending stresses is investigated and the results exposed. The application of a blade angle to the cutting disks to provide straight bevel gears with longitudinal crowning has also been studied. The influence of the blade angle and disk radius on the amount of crowning applied to the gears is presented. It has been found that when no blade angle is applied and therefore line contact occurs, straight bevel gears generated by cuttings disks with a mean radius larger that a certain value yield lower bending stresses than similar octoidal gears without curved root geometry. For smaller radius, the maximum bending stresses increase exponentially. When the contact is localized by using a blade angle higher than zero, the effect of the curved root geometry of straight bevel gears generated by dual interlocking circular cutters is increased, yielding higher bending stresses with respect to equivalent theoretical octoidal gears with the same amount of longitudinal crowning but without curved root geometry.