Spur gear endurance tests were conducted to investigate the surface pitting fatigue life of noninvolute gears with low numbers of teeth and low contact ratios for the use in advanced application. The results were compared with those for a standard involute design with a low number of teeth. The gear pitch diameter was 8.89 cm (3.50 in.) with 12 teeth on both gear designs. Test conditions were an oil inlet temperature of 320 K (116 degrees F), a maximum Hertz stress of 1.49 GPa (216 ksi), and a speed of 10,000 rpm. The following results were obtained: The noninvolute gear had a surface pitting fatigue life approximately 1.6 times that of the standard involute gear of a similar design. The surface pitting fatigue life of the 3.43-pitch AISI 8620 noninvolute gear was approximately equal to the surface pitting fatigue life of an 8-pitch, 28-tooth AISI 9310 gear at the same load, but at a considerably higher maximum Hertz stress.

This article presents an efficient and direct method for the synthesis of compound planetary differential gear trains for the generation of specified multiple speed ratios. It is a train-value method that utilizes the train values of the integrated train components of the systems to form design equations which are solved for the tooth numbers of the gears, the number of mating gear sets and the number of external contacts in the system. Application examples, including vehicle differential transmission units, rear-end differentials with unit and fractional speed ratios, multi-input functions generators and robot wrist joints are given.

Sub: 'Finding Tooth Ratios' article published in Nov/Dec 1985 issue Let us congratulate you and Orthwein, W.C. for publishing this superb article in Gear Technology Journal. We liked the article very much and wish to impliment it in our regular practice.

When designing gears, the engineer is often faced with the problem of selecting the number of teeth in each gear, so that the gear train will provide a given speed ratio

Selection of the number of teeth for each gear in a gear train such that the output to input angular velocity ratio is a specified value is a problem considered by relatively few published works on gear design.

As a result of extensive research into the vibration characteristics of gear drives, a systematic approach has evolved, by which damaging resonances can be eliminated. The method combines finite element techniques with experimental signature and modal analyses. Implementation of the bulk of the method can be carried out early in the design stage. A step-by-step description of the approach, as it was applied to an existing accessory drive, is given in the text. It is shown how premature bearing failures were eliminated by detuning the torsional oscillations of a gearshaft. A dramatic reduction in vibration levels was achieved as a result of detuning the problem gear. The proposed approach can be extended to other types of rotating machines.