More strength, less noise. Those are two major demands on gears, including bevel and hypoid gears.

Optimizing the running behavior of bevel and hypoid gears means improving both noise behavior and load carrying capacity. Since load deflections change the relative position of pinion and ring gear, the position of the contact pattern will depend on the torque. Different contact positions require local 3-D flank form optimizations for improving a gear set.

The purpose of this paper was to verify, when using an oil debris sensor, that accumulated mass predicts gear pitting damage and to identify a method to set threshold limits for damaged gears.

Computer technology has touched all areas of our lives, impacting how we obtain airline tickets, purchase merchandise and receive medical advice. This transformation has had a vast influence on manufacturing as well, providing process improvements that lead to higher quality and lower costs. However, in the case of the gear industry, the critical process of tooth contact pattern development for spiral bevel gears remains relatively unchanged.

The configuration of flank corrections on bevel gears is subject to relatively narrow restrictions. As far as the gear set is concerned, the requirement is for the greatest possible contact zone to minimize flank compression. However, sufficient reserves in tooth depth and longitudinal direction for tooth contact displacement should be present. From the machine - and particularly from the tool - point of view, there are restrictions as to the type and magnitude of crowning that can be realized. Crowning is a circular correction. Different kinds of crowning are distinguished by their direction. Length crowning, for example, is a circular (or 2nd order) material removal, starting at a reference point and extending in tooth length or face width.

Face-milled hypoid pinions produced by the three-cut, Fixed Setting system - where roughing is done on one machine and finishing for the concave-OB and convex-IB tooth flanks is done on separate machines with different setups - are still in widespread use today.

This article also appears as Chapter 1 in the Gleason Corporation publication "Advanced Bevel Gear Technology." Gearing Principles in Cylindrical and Straight Bevel Gears The purpose of gears is to transmit motion and torque from one shaft to another. That transmission normally has to occur with a constant ratio, the lowest possible disturbances and the highest possible efficiency. Tooth profile, length and shape are derived from those requirements.

In general, bevel gears and curvic couplings are completely different elements. Bevel gears rotate on nonintersecting axis with a ratio based on the number of teeth. Curvic couplings work like a clutch (Fig. 1).

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