CHARACTERISTICS OF A NEW-TYPE OF CYLINDRICAL WORM-GEAR DRIVE

A new type of cylindrical worm-gear drive is presented. The worm is gr ound by a grinding wheel whose profile consists of two circular arcs, and the obtained warm profile is concave. The teeth of the gear are pr ocessed by a hob whose generator surface is identical to the worm surf ace. The aim of this paper is to introduce this new type of worm geari ng and to compare the operating characteristics of the new type and of the commonly used worm-gear drives on the basis of tooth contact anal ysis, load distribution calculation, and thermal elastohydrodynamic lu brication analyses. The results obtained show the advantages of the ne w type of worm gear The results of the load distribution calculation a nd EHD lubrication analysis are also used for the optimization of the design parameters of the new type of worm-gear drive.