Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (9) (2017) 4329~4336

www.springerlink.com/content/1738-494x(Print)/1976-3824(Online)
DOI 10.1007/s12206-017-0831-8

Design and investigation of a cycloid helical gear drive†

Xuan Li, Chaoyang Li*, Bingkui Chen and Dong Liang
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission, Chongqing University, No.174, Shazhengjie, Shapingba, Chongqing, 400044, China

(Manuscript Received September 14, 2016; Revised April 9, 2017; Accepted May 5, 2017)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Abstract

In this paper, an original analysis of the geometric design of a parallel-axis cycloid helical gear drive and an investigation on its basic
meshing characteristics are presented. This type of gear drive consists of a pinion with one tooth and a cycloid-helix gear in continuous
line contact along the whole length of the tooth. Firstly, mathematical formulations of their tooth surfaces are derived based on the enve-
lope theory and homogeneous coordinate transformation. Secondly, the undercutting analysis is applied to determine the design con-
straint to avoid the undercutting on the cycloid-helix gear tooth surface. Then, the meshing characteristics including the contact lines,
surface of action, induced normal curvature are analyzed. Numerical example is presented to demonstrate the influence of design parame-
ters on the contact stress distribution. Finally, the loaded tooth contact analysis is performed to simulate the tooth contact condition and to
validate the stress distribution by the finite element method.
Keywords: Cycloid helical gear; Undercutting; Meshing characteristics; Loaded tooth contact analysis
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

than involute helical gears at the same size. Another particular

1. Introduction
case is the double circular arc helical gear, which has even
Helical gears are widely used in industrial areas for power more higher load capability than the single circular arc helical
transmission between parallel axes [1]. Currently there are two gear. However, this type of helical gear also has some disad-
common types of tooth profiles that are used in the design of vantages: The sensitivity to errors in manufacturing and as-
parallel-axes helical gears: the involute and circular arc [2, 3]. sembly, and a more complicated shape of tools [8, 9].
Conventional involute helical gears are insensitive to center- Review of literature reveals that many efforts has already
distance assembly errors and possess instantaneous lines of been made to deal with the defects mentioned above, includ-
contact between two conjugate tooth surfaces which are ing the lubrication, kinematic and dynamic analyses [10-14],
straight lines tangent to the helix on the base cylinder [4]. tooth surface modification [7, 15-17], new types of gears [18,
However, in practice there are also some disadvantages: the 19] and new design method and theory [5, 20, 21]. Wei et al.
sensitivity to axial misalignments, causing discontinuous [11] presented a six-degree-of-freedom dynamic model to
transmission error and edge contacts, resulting in noise and investigate the influence of contact ratio, supporting stiffness,
vibration; the low load capability and high power losses due to mesh damping and backlash on dynamic TE and vibration
the small curvature of tooth flank and sliding friction of tooth stability of the helical gear system. Sunghoon et al. [16] con-
surfaces [5]; small gear ratio for one stage since the gears with ducted the studies on modeling and optimization of tooth mi-
small number of teeth (less than 17) are hard to manufactured crogeometry for a helical gear pair to reduce the gear noise
and prone to undercutting [6]. and vibration responses of the system. Zhang et al. [10] pre-
The circular arc helical gear is proposed by Wildhaber and sented a dynamic model of a multi-shaft helical geared rotor
Novikov [7]. The tooth surfaces are in point contact at every system to demonstrate the influences of the helical gear geo-
instant instead of the line contact which the involute helical metric eccentricity and the coupling between gear geometric
gears have. Under the loading condition, the initial contact at a eccentricity and rotor mass unbalance. Liang et al. [20] pro-
point becomes an ellipse due to the elastic deformation. The posed a new involute-helix gear drive with convex and con-
center of contact ellipse moves on the gear tooth surface along cave circular-arc tooth profiles based on the theory of conju-
a helix in the process of meshing. Therefore, circular arc heli- gates curves. Xie et al. [13] analyzed the kinematic errors of
cal gears have better load capability and lubrication conditions the helical gear pair with stepped triple circular-arc teeth by
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 23 65106247, Fax.: +86 23 65106247 computer programming and Tooth contact analysis (TCA).
E-mail address: li_zhaoyang77@cqu.edu.cn
†
Recommended by Associate Editor Ki-Hoon Shin
With the development of numerical control technology, the
© KSME & Springer 2017 manufacturing of complicated tooth surfaces can be realized
4330 X. Li et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (9) (2017) 4329~4336

easily [22]. In this paper, a parallel-axis cycloid helical gear

drive is presented based on a patent [23]. The vital feature of
this helical gears is that the tooth profiles are the closed circu-
lar and cycloid curves and the tooth surfaces are in continuous
line contact along the whole length of the tooth. The patent
author also asserts that this aspect improves the load capability
and the transmission efficiency, helps obtain large gear ratio
with small size. However, there is no any information on the
design method and technical detail being disclosed in the pat-
ent, and review of literature reveals that few studies are found
to address this new type of gear drive in the open literature.
Therefore, the aim of this paper is to present the geometric
design of this new type gear drive, to define the mathematical (a) (b)
formulation of the tooth surfaces, to investigate the basic char- Fig. 1. Coordinate systems for generating the pinion tooth surface.
acteristics in terms of the undercutting, meshing and tooth
contact and stress distribution conditions and to evaluate the where q is the pinion surface parameter.
main advantages and drawbacks of its performances. The fixed coordinate system S1 and the movable coordi-
The rest of this paper is structured as follows: Sec. 2 intro- nate system Sa that performs a screw motion with respect to
duces the geometric design and presents the mathematical S1 . The angular and axial displacement in screw motion are
model of tooth surfaces of the pinion and cycloid-helix gear. designated by y and py , respectively. The equation of the
Sec. 3 performs the undercutting analysis and determines the pinion tooth surface can be derived by using the coordinate
design constraint to avoid the undercutting on the cycloid- transformation from Sa to S1 :
helix gear tooth surface. Sec. 4 analyzes the meshing charac- T
r1 = M1ara = ëé x1 y1 z1 1ûù (4)
teristics including the contact lines, surface of action and in-
duced normal curvature. Finally, the loaded tooth contact écosy - siny 0 0 ù
ê ú
analysis is applied to simulate the tooth contact and validate siny cosy 0 0 ú
M1a = ê (5)
the stress distribution in Sec. 5. ê 0 0 1 py ú
ê ú
ëê 0 0 0 1 ûú
2. Geometry design
where the pitch of screw p = H / 2p is positive for right-
2.1 Generation of the pinion
hand pinion, and H is the axial displacement corresponding
The pinion tooth surface is generated by a planar eccentric to one complete revolution.
circle performing a screw motion. Fig. 1(a) shows the coordi-
nate systems Sa and Sb rigidly connected to the normal
2.2 Mathematical model of cycloid-helix gear
cross sections of the pinion and the conjugate gear, respec-
tively. The end cross section of the pinion is an eccentric cir- The generation of cycloid-helix gear tooth surface is based
cle with radius r and eccentricity e in Sa . Symbol E is on the enveloping theory and coordinate transformation,
the shortest distance between axes xa and xb . The instanta- which is the envelope to the family of pinion tooth surface.
neous center curves of the pinion and gear are in external tan- Fig. 2 shows the movable coordinate systems S1 and S2
gency and their radii r1 and r2 are determined from the that are rigidly connected to the pinion and conjugate gear,
following equations: which rotate with respect to axes z1 and z2 , respectively
with the rotational angles j1 and j 2 in the opposite direc-
E Ei tion. The tooth number of pinion and cycloid-helix gear are
r1 = , r2 = (1)
1+ i 1+ i n1 and n2 , respectively. They have the following relation-
ship i = j1 / j 2 = n2 .
where i is the gear ratio.
The equation of cycloid-helix gear tooth surface can be de-
Considering the constraint e < r1 , we obtain:
rived by using the coordinate transformation from S1 to S2 :
e(1 + i ) T
m= <1 (2) r2 = M 21r1 = M12-1r1 = éë x2 y2 z2 1ùû (6)
E

where m is the eccentric parameter. é cos j1 sin j1 0 0ù

The vector equation of eccentric circle is represented in Sa : ê ú
- sin j1 cos j1 0 0ú
where M12 = M1 f M fp M p 2 , M1 f = ê ,
ê 0 0 1 0ú
T ê ú
ra = éër cosq e + r sin q 0 1ùû (3) êë 0 0 0 1 úû
 X. Li et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (9) (2017) 4329~4336 4331

Fig. 3. Normal cross section of cycloid-helix gear at different values of

y : (a) y = 0 ; (b) y = p / 2 ; (c) y = p .

Without losing generality and setting the angular velocity of

the conjugate gear to unit w2 = 1 , a dimensionless equation of
meshing can be obtained by dividing p r E :

cos(q + y + j1 ) - m cosq = 0 . (11)

According to the Eqs. (6) and (11), the cycloid-helix gear

tooth surface can be represented as:
Fig. 2. Coordinate system for generating the cycloid-helix gear.
ì i +1 i +1 1
ï x2 = r cos(q + y + i j1 ) - e sin( i j1 + y ) + E sin i j1
é1 0 0 0ù é cos j 2 sin j 2 0 0ù ï
ê ú ê ú ï y = r sin(q + y + i + 1 j ) + e cos( i + 1 j + y ) - E cos 1 j
0 1 0 Eú - sin j 2 cos j 2 0 0ú í 2 1 1 1
M fp = ê , M p2 = ê . ï i i i
ê0 0 1 0ú ê 0 0 1 0ú ï z2 = py
ê ú ê ú ï
êë 0 0 0 1 úû êë 0 0 0 1 úû î cos(q + y + j1 ) - m cosq = 0 .
(12)
To solve the conjugate tooth surface equation, the equation
of meshing should be considered. Based on the theory of gear- The normal cross section of cycloid-helix gear is closed
ing [2], the equation of meshing can be represented as: continuous cycloid curves, as shown in Fig. 3. The normal
tooth profile can be determined by giving a fixed value of y .
f (q ,y ,j ) = N1(1) v1(12) = 0 . (7) Therefore, the generation of the cycloid-helix gear tooth sur-
face can be considered as a planar cycloid curve performing a
The normal vector N1(1) is represented in S1 : screw motion.

¶r1 ¶r1 3. Undercutting analysis

N1(1) = ´ (8)
¶q ¶y Based on the theory of gearing [2], to avoid undercutting on
the cycloid-helix gear tooth surface it is necessary to avoid the
é - r sin(q + y ) ù é - r sin(q + y ) - e cosy ù appearance of singular points. The conditions of non-
ê ú ê ú undercutting on the cycloid-helix gear tooth surface is deter-
¶r r cos(q + y ) ú , ¶r1 = ê r cos(q + y ) - e siny ú .
where 1 = ê mined by the undercutting limit function as:
¶q ê 0 ú ¶y ê p ú
ê ú ê ú
êë 1 úû êë 1 úû
(12 ) E F r1q v1(12 )
The relative velocity v1 is represented in S1 : 1
g (q ,y ,j ) = 2 F G r1y v1(12 ) ¹ 0 (13)
D
v(12) (1) (2)
= (ω - ω ) ´ r1 - E1 ´ ω (2)
(9) fq fy ft
1 1 1 1

T
where E1 = éë E sin j1 E cos j1 0ùû , ω1(1) = éë0 0 w1 ùû ,
T ¶r1 ¶r
where r1q = , r1y = 1 , G = r1v2 , F = r1q × r1v , D 2 = EG - F 2 ,
T
¶q ¶y
ω1(2) = ëé0 0 -w2 ûù . ¶f dj1 ¶f ¶f
E = r12q , f t = , fq = and fy = .
Submitting the Eqs. (8) and (9) into Eq. (7): ¶j1 dt ¶q ¶y
According to the theory of gearing [2], the singularity exists
f (q ,y ,j ) = w2 p r [ E cos(q + y + j1 ) - e(1 + i )cos(q )] = 0 . when the undercutting limit function g (q ,y ,j ) is equal to
(10) zero. After derivations, turning inequality Eq. (13) into equality,
4332 X. Li et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (9) (2017) 4329~4336
Fig. 4. Determination of the design constraint.
Fig. 5. Illustration of three different types of undercutting on the nor-
mal tooth profile of the cycloid-helix gear: (a) Double undercutting,
r a < r (q ) < rb ; (b) single undercutting, r (q ) > rb ; (c) non-
undercutting, 0 < r (q ) < r a .
we obtain the singularity equation:
g (q ,y ,j ) = pw12{ - e(1 + i )sin q [2 Eer cosq
cos(q + j1 + y ) + 2(1 + i ) p 2 ( r + e sin q ) + Ee 2
sin(q - j1 - y )] + a[(e 2 + 2 p 2 ) r + e 2 r cos 2q
+ (1 + i )(e3 + 4ep 2 sin q + Ee 2 sin(q - j1 - y )]
sin(q + j1 + y ) - E 2 (e 2 + 2 p 2 )[sin(q + j1 + y )]2 }
/2i 2 [e 2 + p 2 - e 2 (sin q ) 2 ] = 0 .
Then we obtain the function r (q ) :
[e(1 + i )sin q - E sin(q + A)][-2e(1 + i ) p 2 sin q
- Ee 2 sin(q - A) + E (e 2 + 2 p 2 )sin(q + A)]
r (q ) =
e(1 + i )[2(1 + i ) p 2 sin q + Ee cos(q + A)sin 2q
- E (e 2 + 2 p 2 + e 2 cos 2q )sin(q + A)]
where A = arccos( m cos q ) - q and r (q ) is a function of q .
Note that the inequality Eq. (13) can be satisfied and undercut-
ting will be avoided if the radius r of circle is chosen in the
following design constraint 0 < r (q ) < r a where r a is the
minimum positive value of r (q ) .
To validate the feasibility of the analysis above, a numerical
example is presented. When the design parameters is given as
e = 2.5 mm, E = 25 mm, n2 = 5 , 0 £ q £ 2p and H = 13.5 mm,
the plot of the function r (q ) can be obtained, as shown in
Fig. 4. Then, the values of r a = 12.5473 mm and
rb = 13.913 mm can be determined. When the designed values
of r are 13, 14 and 9 mm, the undercutting condition can be
estimated as displayed in Fig. 5. Fig. 5 shows three different
types of undercutting on the normal tooth profile of the cy-
cloid-helix gear. The analysis above indicates that the single
and double undercutting will occur if r are chosen in
r (q ) > rb and r a < r (q ) < rb , respectively. While the un-
dercutting will not occur if r is in the design con-
straint 0 < r (q ) < r a . Therefore, the undercutting can be
avoided by examining the value of radius r according to the
design constraint.
4. Meshing characteristics analysis
4.1 Contact lines
Contact lines on pinion tooth surface are obtained as:
r1 (q ,y ), f (q ,y ,j ) = 0 . (16)
Submitting Eqs. (4) and (11) to Eq. (16):
ì x1 = r cos(q + y ) - e siny
ï
ï y1 = r sin(q + y ) + e cosy
í (17)
ï z1 = py
ïîcos(q + y + j1 ) - m cosq = 0 .
Eq. (17) represents a family of contact lines on the pinion
tooth. A fixed value of j1 can determine one contact line of
this family. Fig. 6 shows the radial projections of contact lines
on pinion tooth surface at different j1 . It is observed that
contact lines are continuous curves along the whole length of
(14) the tooth and move as the pinion rotates. Note that the exis-
tence of an envelope on the tooth surface is not desirable [3].
The reasons are that a part of generating surface without con-
tact lines is out of meshing, and conditions of heat transfer and
lubrication in the area close to the envelope are not favorable.
Hence, it is significant to analyze the envelope of contact lines.
Based on the theory of gearing [2], the envelope of contact
lines on the pinion is satisfied by the following equations:
r1 (q ,y ), f (q ,y ,j ) = 0, f t (q ,y ,j ) = 0 (18)
(15)
and with further simplification:
ìcos(q + y + j1 ) - m cosq =0
í (19)
î sin(q + y + j1 ) = 0
where the above equation yields m = 1 / cosq .
However, the above equality is not true since the constraints
are 0 < m < 1 and -1 < cosq < 1 . Therefore, it is easy to verify
that the envelope of contact lines on the pinion tooth surface
do not exist and the pattern of contact lines favors the lubrica-
tion and efficiency of this proposed helical gear drive.
 X. Li et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (9) (2017) 4329~4336 4333

Table 1. Design parameters.

H = 11 mm
e = 2.5 mm, E = 25 mm, n2 = 5 ,
Case 1 H = 13.5 mm
r = 5.5 mm, 0 £ q £ 4p
H = 15 mm
r = 15 mm
e = 2.5 mm, E = 25 mm, n2 = 5 ,
Case 2 r = 5.5 mm
H = 13.5 mm, 0 £ q £ 4p
r = 7 mm

Fig. 6. Radial projection of the contact lines on the pinion gear tooth
surface at different values of j1 (rad): (a) j1 = 0 ; (b) j1 = p / 2 ; (c)
j1 = p ; (d) j1 = 1.5p .
Fig. 7. The surface of action and its normal cross section.

4.2 Surface of action

conditions. It can help designers to select the appropriate pa-
The surface of action is the family of contact lines, which is rameters for optimal design. In this paper, the induced normal
an imaginary surface in the fixed coordinate system. The sur- curvature analysis is performed to predict the contact stress
face of action is represented by: distribution on the tooth surface. The equation of INC can be
represented as:
T
r f = M f 1r1 = ëé x f yf zf 1ûù , f (q ,y ,j ) = 0 (20)
1
knf (q ,y ,j ) =
D 2 g (q ,y ,j )
(
Efy2 - 2 Ffq fy + Gfq2 . ) (22)
-1
where M f 1 = M 1f and with further simplification,
Submitting the Eq. (13) to Eq. (22), yields:
ì x f = r cos(q + j1 + y ) - e sin(j1 + y )
ï
ï y f = r sin(q + j1 + y ) + e cos(j1 + y ) 2 pe 2 (1 + i ) 2 sin 2 q (e 2 + p 2 + r 2 + 2er sin q )
í (21)
ï z f = py -2 Ee(1 + i )sin q (e 2 + p 2 + er sin q )sin(q +
ïî cos(q + y + j1 ) - m cosq = 0 . j1 + y ) + E 2 (e 2 + p 2 )sin 2 (q + j1 + y )
knf (q ,y ,j ) =
e(1 + i )sin q [2 Eer cos q cos(q + j1 + y )+
Fig. 7 shows the surface of action of cycloid helical gear 2(1 + i ) p 2 ( r + e sin q ) + Ee 2 sin(q - j1 - y )
drive. It is observed that it is a closed twisted contact surface,
- E{(e 2 + 2 p 2 ) r + e[er cos 2q + (1 + i )(e 2
and its cross section is similar to “8” whose intersection point
is located on the pitch circle. Referring to Fig. 7, the contact +4 p 2 )sin q + Ee sin(q - j1 - y )]}sin(q + j1
ratio in the cross section is less than 1. So in order to provide +y ) + E 2 (e 2 + 2 p 2 )sin 2 (q + j1 + y ) .
the continuous transmission of rotation, the contact ratio in the (23)
longitudinal direction must be larger than 1, where the helical
angle y should be larger than p rad. Note that knf (q ,y ,j ) is a function of q , y and j . Their
relationship can be determined by Eq. (11). Two case studies
4.3 Induced normal curvature are considered to show the effects of H and r on the con-
tact stress distribution. The design parameters are listed in
The Induced normal curvature (INC) is the relative normal Table 1. According to Eqs. (11) and (23), given a fixed value
curvature between the two conjugate gear teeth surfaces. It is of j1 = 0 rad, knf (q ,y ,j ) can be calculated and shown in
an important parameter to predict the lubrication and contact Fig. 8. Four ranges ( a, b, c and d ) of q with higher absolute
4334 X. Li et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (9) (2017) 4329~4336
Fig. 8. Variations of INC with different values of (a) H ; (b) r .
values of the INC are observed within the range of q from 0
to 4p rad, meaning that there are four regions with higher
contact stress on the tooth surface locating in the correspond-
ing angle ranges. Fig. 8(a) shows the effect of different values
of H on the absolute values of the INC.
Under the same design parameters, the absolute value of the
INC increases in the ranges b and d with the increasing
H , while the tendency is opposite in the ranges a and c . It
indicates that the contact stress in the ranges b and d will
increase as H increases, while in the ranges a and c the
contact stress will decrease. Similarly, Fig. 8(b) shows the
effect of the different values of r on the INC. The absolute
value of INC increases in all the four ranges a, b, c and d
with an increasing r , meaning that the contact stress will
increase. However, as the value of r decreases, the absolute
value of INC increases in the ranges b and d , the tendency
is opposite in the ranges a and c . The contact stress will
also show the same tendency. As shown in both Figs. 8(a) and
(b), the purple curves are under the same design parameters. It
is observed the maximum absolute values corresponding to
the four ranges a, b, c and d are almost the same, meaning
that the maximum contact stress will be the same in the four
locations. This means the maximum contact stress can be re-
duced by selecting the appropriate design parameters to im-
prove the load capability of this proposed helix gear drive.
5. Loaded tooth contact analysis
To investigate the tooth contact condition and stress distri-
Fig. 9. (a) 3D; (b) physical models of cycloid-helix gear drive.
Fig. 10. (a) 3D Finite element model; (b) contact condition on the
pinion tooth surface.
bution of the proposed cycloid helical gear drive, the loaded
Tooth contact analysis (TCA) was performed by using the
Finite element method (FEM). Meanwhile, the loaded TCA is
used to validate the contact stress distribution predicted by the
INC analysis.
Before the loaded TCA, the precise three dimensional (3D)
solid model of the two gears are established as displayed in
Fig. 9(a), according to the design parameters as e = 2.5 mm,
E = 25 mm, n2 = 5, r = 5.5 mm, 0 £ q £ 4p and H =
13.5 mm. In order to evaluate its meshing condition, a com-
puterized motion simulation of meshing process is carried out.
The following behaviors are observed from the simulation: (1)
This gear drive can transmit rotational motion with a constant
gear ratio; (2) no meshing interference between the conjugate
tooth surfaces is found in the meshing process; (3) the conju-
gate tooth surfaces are in continuous line contact along the
whole length of the tooth. Based on the parameters above, the
physical model of this the two gears are also manufactured by
a 3D printer as shown in Fig. 9(b). The advantage of using a
3D printer is the way that it facilitates a rapid design cycle and
eliminates some manufacture difficulties.
The 3D model then transfers to the finite element analysis
software for the loaded TCA. For the pinion gear, a revolute
joint is built at the axle hole, where the pinion axis as the revo-
lute axis. Similarly, for the wheel. Besides, a 3D contact con-
straint is constructed between the pinion and cycloid-helix
gear. After the constraints are built, a torque is applied to the
 X. Li et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (9) (2017) 4329~4336
pinion. Fig. 10(a) shows the 3D finite element model. A com-
patible element, solid 185 is used to mesh the solid models of
the pinion and cycloid-helix gear. To save the calculation re-
source, the max sizes of elements are set as 2 mm. While for
the elements attached to the tooth surfaces, their max sizes are
set as 0.1 mm to ensure the calculation accuracy. The material
of the pinion and cycloid-helix gear is steel with Young’s
modulus E = 2.05 ´ 105 MPa and the Poisson ratio m = 0.3 .
The input torque is set as 10 Nm, which is a very large torque
for the comparative small overall dimensions of the gears.
After the finite element model solved, the contact pattern
and stress distribution on the pinion gear tooth surface can be
obtained, as shown in Fig. 10(b). The contact line on the pin-
ion gear tooth surface is a continuous curve along the whole
length of the tooth, which is the same as the one displayed in
the Fig. 6. Furthermore, as the same results predicted in the
INC analysis, there are four higher contact stress regions on
the contact line corresponding to the four ranges a, b, c and
d , and their maximum values of the Von-Mises stress are
almost the same. The maximum values of Von-Mises stress
on the pinion gear tooth surface is 615.96 Mpa that is much
smaller than the allowable stress (1200 Mpa). The loaded
TCA also proves that the INC analysis is feasible to qualita-
tively predict the contact stress distribution.
6. Conclusions
In this study, a parallel-axis cycloid helical gear drive is
presented. The mathematical formulations of the pinion and
cycloid-helix gear tooth surfaces have been derived based on
the envelope theory and homogeneous coordinate transforma-
tion. With this, the undercutting, meshing characteristics and
loaded tooth contact analyses are performed. The analysis
results lead to the following conclusions:
(1) The tooth profiles of pinion and gear are the closed cir-
cular and cycloid curves. This type of helical gear drive has a
large gear ratio in small size due to the pinion with one tooth.
(2) The undercutting on the tooth surface of the cycloid-
helix gear can be determined according to the proposed design
constraint.
(3) The conjugated tooth surfaces possess a continuous line
contact along the whole length of the tooth. The envelope of
contact lines on the pinion tooth surface do not exist and the
pattern of contact lines favors the conditions of lubrication and
efficiency of this proposed helical gear drive.
(4) To provide the continuous transmission of rotation, the
contact ratio in the longitudinal direction should be larger than
1 wherein the helical angle y should be larger than p rad.
(5) The INC analysis can be used to qualitatively predict the
contact stress distribution between the two tooth surfaces and
optimize the design of this type of helical gear drive.
Acknowledgment
The authors would like to acknowledge the supports from
4335
National Natural Science Funds for Young Scholar (Grant No.
51605049), Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou
City of China (Grant No. 2014Y2-00217), and Science and
Technology Achievements Transformation Program of Ji-
angsu Province of China (Grant No. BA2015177).
References
[1] C. B. Tsay and Z. H. Fong, Computer simulation and stress
analysis of helical gears with pinion circular arc teeth and
gear involute teeth, Mechanism and Machine Theory, 26 (2)
(1991) 145-154.
[2] F. L. Litvin and A. Fuentes, Gear geometry and applied
theory, Cambridge University Press (2004).
[3] F. L. Litvin, V. Kin and Y. Zhang, Limitations of conjugate
gear tooth surfaces, Journal of Mechanical Design, 112 (2)
(1990) 230-236.
[4] C. B. Tsay, Helical gears with involute shaped teeth geome-
try, computer simulation, tooth contact analysis, and stress-
analysis, Journal of Mechanisms Transmissions and Auto-
mation in Design Transactions of the ASME, 110 (4) (1988)
482-491.
[5] T. Yeh, D. C. H. Yang and S. H. Tong, Design of new tooth
profiles for high-load capacity gears, Mechanism and Ma-
chine Theory, 36 (10) (2001) 1105-1120.
[6] C. F. Chen and C. B. Tsay, Tooth profile design for the
manufacture of helical gear sets with small numbers of teeth,
International Journal of Machine Tools & Manufacture, 45
(12-13) (2005) 1531-1541.
[7] F. L. Litvin, N. X. Chen, J. Lu and R. F. Handschuh, Com-
puterized design and generation of low-noise helical gears
with modified surface topology, Journal of Mechanical De-
sign, 117 (2A) (1995) 254-261.
[8] C. K. Chen and C. Y. Wang, Compensating analysis of a
double circular-arc helical gear by computerized simulation
of meshing, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Sci-
ence, 215 (7) (2001) 759-771.
[9] F. L. Litvin and C. B. Tsay, Helical gears with circular arc
teeth simulation of conditions of meshing and bearing con-
tact, Journal of Mechanisms Transmissions and Automation
in Design-Transactions of the ASME, 107 (4) (1985) 556-
564.
[10] Y. Zhang, Q. Wang, H. Ma, J. Huang and C. Zhao, Dy-
namic analysis of three-dimensional helical geared rotor sys-
tem with geometric eccentricity, Journal of Mechanical Sci-
ence and Technology, 27 (11) (2013) 3231-3242.
[11] J. Wei, P. Gao, X. Hu, W. Sun and J. Zeng, Effects of dy-
namic transmission errors and vibration stability in helical
gears, Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, 28
(6) (2014) 2253-2262.
[12] J. Wei, W. Sun and L. Wang, Effects of flank deviation on
load distributions for helical gear, Journal of Mechanical
Science and Technology, 25 (7) (2011) 1781-1789.
[13] X. S. Xie and H. C. Yang, Kinematic errors on helical gear
4336 X. Li et al. / Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology 31 (9) (2017) 4329~4336
of triple circular-arc teeth, Journal of Mechanical Science
and Technology, 28 (8) (2014) 3137-3146.
[14] M. Liu, C. Zhu, H. Liu and C. Wu, Parametric studies of
lubrication performance of a helical gear pair with non-
Newtonian fluids, Journal of Mechanical Science and Tech-
nology, 30 (1) (2016) 317-326.
[15] H. Zeyin, L. Tengjiao, L. Tianhong, D. Tao and H. Qiguo,
Parametric modeling and contact analysis of helical gears
with modifications, Journal of Mechanical Science and
Technology, 30 (11) (2016) 4859-4867.
[16] S. Oh, S. Oh, J. Kang, I. Lee and S. Lyu, A study on mod-
eling and optimization of tooth microgeometry for a helical
gear pair, International Journal of Precision Engineering
and Manufacturing, 14 (3) (2013) 423-427.
[17] Q. Zhang, J. Kang, W. Dong and S. Lyu, A study on tooth
modification and radiation noise of a manual transaxle, In-
ternational Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufac-
turing, 13 (6) (2012) 1013-1020.
[18] S. C. Yang, Mathematical model of a stepped triple circu-
lar-arc gear, Mechanism and Machine Theory, 44 (5) (2009)
1019-1031.
[19] F. L. Litvin, A. Fuentes, I. Gonzalez-Perez, L. Carnevali
and T. M. Sep, New version of Novikov-Wildhaber helical
gears: computerized design, simulation of meshing and
stress analysis, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics
and Engineering, 191 (49-50) (2002) 5707-5740.
[20] D. Liang, B. K. Chen and Y. N. Gao, The generation prin-
ciple and mathematical model of a new involute-helix gear
drive, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engi-
neers Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science,
227 (12) (2013) 2834-2843.
[21] B. K. Chen, D. Liang and Y. Gao, Geometry design and
mathematical model of a new kind of gear transmission with
circular arc tooth profiles based on curve contact analysis,
Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part
C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, 228 (17)
(2014) 3200-3208.
[22] J. H. Yun, M. S. Jeong, S. K. Lee, J. W. Jeon, J. Y. Park
and G. M. Kim, Sustainable production of helical pinion
gears: environmental effects and product quality, Interna-
tional Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing
Green Technology, 1 (1) (2014) 37-41.
[23] V. V. Stanovskoy, S. M. Kazakyavichyus, T. A. Remneva
and V. M. Kuznetsov, Toothed wheel gearing (variants) and
a planetary toothed mechanism based thereon (variants),
USA Patents US20100095792 A1 (2012).
Xuan Li is currently a Ph.D. student at
State Key Laboratory of Mechanical
Transmission, Chongqing University,
China. He spent two years as a Visiting
Scholar at University of Cincinnati,
USA. His research interests include gear
design and dynamics.
Chaoyang Li received his doctor's de-
gree in engineering from the State Key
Laboratory of Mechanical Transmission,
Chongqing University, China. Dr. Li is
currently an Associate Professor in
School of Mechanical and Engineering
at Chongqing University. His research
areas of interest include gear design,
optimization and manufacturing.
Bingkui Chen is currently a Professor
and Director for the State Key Lab of
Mechanical Transmissions at Chong-
qing University, China. He is also Vice
Director of the CMES Gear Technical
Committee and a member of the CMES
Gear Manufacturing Committee. Prof.
Chen has conducted pioneering research
related to gear geometry, kinematics, dynamics and manufac-
turing.