Designing gears is somewhat of a mathematical puzzle. You have lots of interconnected factors to play with in hopes of finding the “best” overall solution […]

Few designers would feel comfortable with a face to pinion pitch diameter ratio of 2.00 anymore. Some still prefer to select face width by face […]

The second component in that face contact ratio equation is the face width. There are almost as many “rules of thumb” for determining the “proper” […]

I was trained in the cult of the integer face contact ratio. A few adherents to this belief are still above ground, but the introduction […]

The most obvious difference between a spur gear and a helical gear is the presence of that “helix” angle. Civilians will call them “straight-cut” and […]

Most of the gearboxes I have been involved with use single helical gears. Its excellent power capacity per mesh makes it the default system for […]

A few weeks ago, I admitted to not knowing much about the Klingelnberg system of bevels. Terry Edwards, chief designer at Pacific Star Marine in […]

Continuing our discussion of the “least you need to know” about worm gearing: 5. Efficiency is highly variable for worms. If it is critical to […]

Worm gearing has long been a big part of the mechanical world. If you work in the gear trade, “civilians” will rightly expect you to […]

It is difficult to know where to start when writing about worm gears, because this market segment has defied “standardization” within the United States. The […]