The deformation of the gear teeth due to load conditions may cause premature tooth meshing. This irregular tooth contact causes increased stress on the tooth flank. These adverse effects can be avoided by using defined flank modifications, designed by means of FE-based tooth contact analysis.

Helical gear teeth are affected by cratering wear — particularly in the regions of low oil film thicknesses, high flank pressures and high sliding speeds. The greatest wear occurs on the pinion — in the area of negative specific sliding. Here the tooth tip radius of the driven gear makes contact with the flank of the driving gear with maximum sliding speed and pressure.

The connection between transmission error, noise and vibration during operation has long been established. Calculation methods have been developed to describe the influence so that it is possible to evaluate the relative effect of applying a specific modification at the design stage. These calculations enable the designer to minimize the excitation from the gear pair engagement at a specific load. This paper explains the theory behind transmission error and the reasoning behind the method of applying the modifications through mapping surface profiles and determining load sharing.

In this article, a new tip relief profile modification for spur gears is presented. The topography proposed here is a classical linear profile modification with a parabolic fillet.

This paper discusses the influence of tip relief, root relief, load modification, end relief and their combinations on gear stresses and transmission errors due to shaft deflections.

When designing hardened and ground spur gears to operate with minimum noise, what are the parameters to be considered? should tip and/or root relief be applied to both wheel and pinion or only to one member? When pinions are enlarged and he wheel reduced, should tip relief be applied? What are the effects on strength, wear and noise? For given ratios with enlarged pinions and reduced wheels, how can the gear set sized be checked or adjusted to ensure that the best combination has been achieved?