Massimiliano Turci is a consultant in gear and
cam-mechanism design. He is the team leader of the Italian
technical staff of KISSsoft. His experience is primarily in
the development of computational models for industrial
gearboxes and vehicle transmissions. He has also served on
the AGMA worm gear committee.
This paper shows a methodology to extensively evaluate different designs of epicyclic gear systems. As outlined, no choice is required on the part of the designer who is free to probe all design variables.
The paper is not the proof of a discovery, but it is the description of a method: the
optimization of the microgeometry for cylindrical gears. The method has been applied and described on some transmissions with helical gears and compound epicyclic, used on different hybrid vehicles. However, the method is also valid for industrial gearboxes.