Design of Acoustical Optimized Bevel Gears Using Manufacturing Simulation

Abstract

The transmission error (TE) is a criterion in the design process for gears, as, beside a sufficient load-carrying capacity and good efficiency, noise performance is an important customer demand. For the micro geometry design, the tooth contact analysis (TCA) including the simulation of the manufacturing process for the flank topography is necessary.The objective of this paper is to show potential for the optimization of face-milled bevel gears. Therefore, the FE-based TCA program ZaKo3D was developed. The potential for the acoustic optimization of ground bevel gears in terms of tonality reduction is discussed. Hence, the TCA is performed with a complete tooth hunting, in order to consider all individual flanks of the gear set. Finally, the different topography distributions for a ground design will be discussed in order to understand the optimization potential for a tonality reduction by imitating the lapped topography characteristic.