A METHOD FOR CALCULATING STATIC TRANSMISSION ERRORS OF PLASTIC SPUR GEARS USING FEM EVALUATION

There are many ways to calculate the static transmission errors of ste el gears, but none is developed for plastic gears. Since the Young's m odulus of the plastic material is lower than that of steel by two orde rs, the effects of large tooth deflection on the static transmission e rrors of plastic gears become significant. A multi-tooth contact analy sis using finite element method for calculating the static transmissio n errors of plastic spur gears is established to compare with the exis ting method for steel spur gears. According to the comparison results, a modification of the existing method is proposed for plastic spur ge ars and verified by the same finite element contact analysis. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.