Much of the information in this article has been extracted from an AGMA Technical Paper, "What Single Flank Testing Can Do For You", presented in 1984 by the author

Advancements in machining and assembly techniques of thermoplastic gearing along with new design data has lead to increased useage of polymeric materials. information on state of the art methods in fabrication of plastic gearing is presented and the importance of a proper backlash allowance at installation is discussed. Under controlled conditions, cast nylon gears show 8-14 dBA. lower noise level than three other gear materials tested.

The effect of load speed on straight and involute tooth forms is studied using several finite-element models.

The contact lines of a pair of helical gears move diagonally on the engaged tooth faces and their lengths consequently vary with the rotation of the gears.

The manufacturing quality of spiral bevel gears has achieved a very high standard. Nevertheless, the understanding of the real stress conditions and the influences. of certain parameters is not satisfactory.

The use of plastic gearing is increasing steadily in new products. This is due in part to the availability of recent design data. Fatigue stress of plastic gears as a function of diametral pitch, pressure angle, pitch line velocity, lubrication and life cycles are described based on test information. Design procedures for plastic gears are presented.

High speed gearing, operating with low viscosity lubricants, is prone to a failure mode called scoring. In contrast to the classic failure modes, pitting and breakage, which generally take time to develop, scoring occurs early in the operation of a gear set and can be the limiting factor in the gear's power capability.

Since the design of involute splines and their manufacture requires considerable knowledge, not only of the basic properties of the involute profile, but also of various other elements which affect the spline fit and the sometimes complex principles underlying manufacturing and checking equipment, the question is frequently raised as to why the involute profile is given preference in designing splines over the seemingly simpler straight sided tooth profile.

The fundamental purpose of gear grinding is to consistently and economically produce "hard" or "soft" gear tooth elements within the accuracy required by the gear functions. These gear elements include tooth profile, tooth spacing, lead or parallelism, axial profile, pitch line runout, surface finish, root fillet profile, and other gear geometry which contribute to the performance of a gear train.

The performance of carburized components can be improved simply by changing the alloy content of the steel.