A COMPUTER-BASED APPROACH FOR EVALUATION OF OPERATING PERFORMANCES OFBEVEL AND HYPOID GEARS

Two different methods have been proposed to determine the reference su rfaces for the tooth contact analysis of bevel and hypoid gears. One i s to use the theoretical tooth flank coordinate, for both pinion and g ear, calculated from the machine settings. The other is to use the sam e theoretical tooth flank coordinate for the gear but the conjugate pi nion. Based on these two methods, two different computer based simulat ion programs were developed. The transmission errors, path of contact and contact pattern were calculated and compared between the two metho ds, under both no load and loaded conditions. The results for the two methods were also compared with the experimental results and showed go od agreement. The results for four gear sets with different composite error surfaces showed the power of the conjugate approach. However, ea ch approach has features and problems, and thus the characteristics an d scope of the two methods are compared and discussed.