Impact of phase configuration of a helical idler gear system on the vibration

Abstract

The helical idler gear system has a lot of applications for reducer. The number of idler teeth and the orientation angle between the center lines of the three gears directly determine the mesh phasing. However, their impact is often ignored in system design. This paper presents the phase configuration relationship of the idler gear system, which can be used to control the mesh phasing by adjusting the number of idler teeth and orientation angle, to achieve vibration reduction. By establishing the dynamic model of an idler gear system considering phase configuration, the effects of the idler teeth number, orientation angle, and mesh phasing on the dynamic characteristics are investigated. For odd and even idler teeth numbers, the change law of mesh phasing with orientation angle is revealed. When the orientation angle is constant, the number of idler gear teeth will directly affect the system vibration response from the mesh phasing. The mesh phasing and its vibration response change periodically with the orientation angle. In each cycle, there is an optimal mesh phasing that reduces the variation response of different modes, and its value of different periods basically remains the same. In a period of mesh phasing, the suppression mechanism of mesh phasing under different vibration modes is studied. The variation law of the optimal mesh phasing with the rotational speed is revealed, and the vibration reduction effect can reach 20% on average. Finally, the correctness of vibration response and mesh phasing relationship is verified by experiments and a rigid-flexible coupling model. The above research provides a foundation for realizing vibration reduction by adjusting phase configuration.