As the time came to write this editorial, the replies to our survey from the last issue were just starting to pour in. We were gratified by the number of responses we received and by the amount of time many of you spent
answering in great detail the text
questions on the survey. Because of
this unusually large response, it will
take us some months to log, digest
and respond to all the data. Thank
you for this nice "problem."
How important is the right choice of coupling in determining successful machine design? Consider the following
example. A transmission of appropriate size was needed to transfer the speed of the engine driver to that of the driven generator. The transmission was properly selected and sized to endure the rated power requirements indefinitely, but after only a short time in operation, it failed anyway. What happened? The culprit in the case was a coupling. It provided the necessary power and protection against misalignment but it lacked the ability to isolate the gears from the torque
peaks of the diesel engine.
Rotary gear honing is a hard gear finishing process that was developed to improve the sound characteristics of
hardened gears by: Removing nicks and burrs; improving surface finish; and making minor corrections in tooth irregularities caused by heat-treat distortion.
In this discussion of gear roll-finishing particular attention is called to the special tooth nomenclature resulting from the interaction between the rolling die teeth and the gear teeth. To eliminate confusion the side of a gear tooth that is in contact with the "approach" side of a rolling die tooth is also considered to be the approach side. The same holds true for the "trail" side. Thus, the side of the gear tooth that is in contact with the trail side of a rolling die is also considered to be the trail side.
When specifying a complete gear design, the novice designer is confronted with an overwhelming and frequently confusing group of options which must be specified. This array of specifications range from the rather vague to the very specific.
The higher load carrying capacities, compact dimensions and longer life of hardened gears is an accepted fact in industry today. However, the costs involved in case hardening and subsequent finishing operations to achieve these advantages are considerable. For example, in order to achieve desired running properties on larger gears, it has been necessary to grind the tooth flanks. This costly operation can now be replaced, in many cases, by a new Hard Cutting (HC)
process which permits the cutting of hardened gears while maintaining extremely low tooling costs.
In ParI 1 several scuffing (scoring) criteria were shown ultimately to converge into one criterion, the original flash temperature criterion according to Blok. In Part 2 it will be shown that all geometric influences may be concentrated in one factor dependent on only four independent parameters, of which the gear ratio, the number of teeth of the pinion, and the addendum modification coefficient of the pinion are significant.
Joe Arvin comments on his recent trip to Scandinavia and how U.S. defense dollars are being spent overseas. J.D. Smith responds to an article on gear noise from the previous issue.