THE MODELING OF BEVEL GEARS USING THE EXACT SPHERICAL INVOLUTE

The solid modeling of bevel gears has been recognized as a major desig n challenge. Various approaches have been proposed to approximate the theoretical involute-generated contact surface of bevel gears. As a me ans to accurately represent contact surfaces of these gears, the exact spherical involute is introduced here. The solid models of straight a nd spiral bevel gears are obtained by applying simple sweeping techniq ues to their tooth profiles, which are described by the exact spherica l involute. Futhermore, the volumetric properties of the modeled bevel gears are readily computed from their piecewise-linear approximation.