Gear noise is among the issues of greatest concern in today's modern gearboxes. Significant research has resulted in the application of enhancements in all phases of gear manufacturing, and the work is ongoing. With the introduction of Electric Vehicles (EV), research and development in this area has surged in recent years. Most importantly, powerful new noise analysis solutions are fast becoming available.

A reader asks about ion-nitride finished shafts and the proper friction coefficient to be used for calculations.

Following is a report on the R&D findings regarding remediation of high-value, high-demand spiral bevel gears for the UH–60 helicopter tail rotor drivetrain. As spiral bevel gears for the UH–60 helicopter are in generally High-Demand due to the needs of new aircraft production and the overhaul and repair of aircraft returning from service, acquisition of new spiral bevel gears in support of R&D activities is very challenging. To compensate, an assessment was done of a then-emerging superfinishing method—i.e., the micromachining process (MPP)—as a potential repair technique for spiral bevel gears, as well as a way to enhance their performance and durability. The results are described in this paper.

Gear tooth wear and micropitting are very difficult phenomena to predict analytically. The failure mode of micropitting is closely correlated to the lambda ratio. Micropitting can be the limiting design parameter for long-term durability. Also, the failure mode of micropitting can progress to wear or macropitting, and then go on to manifest more severe failure modes, such as bending. The results of a gearbox test and manufacturing process development program will be presented to evaluate super-finishing and its impact on micropitting.

Results from the Technical University of Munich were presented in a previous technical article (see Ref. 4). This paper presents the results of Ruhr University Bochum. Both research groups concluded that superfinishing is one of the most powerful technologies for significantly increasing the load-carrying capacity of gear flanks.

In a previous article, the authors identified two misconceptions surrounding gear superfinishing. Here, they tackle three more.

Surface coatings or finishing processes are the future technologies for improving the load carrying capacity of case hardened gears. With the help of basic tests, the influence of different coatings and finishing processes on efficiency and resistance to wear, scuffing, micropitting, and macropitting is examined.

Superfinishing the working surfaces of gears and their root fillet regions results in performance benefits.