Tooth profile[edit]

Profile of a spur gear

 

Undercut
A profile is one side of a tooth in a cross section between the outside circle and the root circle.
Usually a profile is the curve of intersection of a tooth surface and a plane or surface normal to the
pitch surface, such as the transverse, normal, or axial plane.
The fillet curve (root fillet) is the concave portion of the tooth profile where it joins the bottom of the
tooth space.2
As mentioned near the beginning of the article, the attainment of a nonfluctuating velocity ratio is
dependent on the profile of the teeth. Friction and wear between two gears is also dependent on the
tooth profile. There are a great many tooth profiles that provide constant velocity ratios. In many
cases, given an arbitrary tooth shape, it is possible to develop a tooth profile for the mating gear that
provides a constant velocity ratio. However, two constant velocity tooth profiles are the most
commonly used in modern times: the cycloid and the involute. The cycloid was more common until
the late 1800s. Since then, the involute has largely superseded it, particularly in drive train
applications. The cycloid is in some ways the more interesting and flexible shape; however the
involute has two advantages: it is easier to manufacture, and it permits the center-to-center spacing
of the gears to vary over some range without ruining the constancy of the velocity ratio. Cycloidal
gears only work properly if the center spacing is exactly right. Cycloidal gears are still used in
mechanical clocks.
An undercut is a condition in generated gear teeth when any part of the fillet curve lies inside of a
line drawn tangent to the working profile at its point of juncture with the fillet. Undercut may be
deliberately introduced to facilitate finishing operations. With undercut the fillet curve intersects the
working profile. Without undercut the fillet curve and the working profile have a common tangent.

Gear materials[edit]
Wooden gears of a historic windmill

Numerous nonferrous alloys, cast irons, powder-metallurgy and plastics are used in the manufacture
of gears. However, steels are most commonly used because of their high strength-to-weight ratio
and low cost. Plastic is commonly used where cost or weight is a concern. A properly designed
plastic gear can replace steel in many cases because it has many desirable properties, including dirt
tolerance, low speed meshing, the ability to "skip" quite well [35] and the ability to be made with
materials that don't need additional lubrication. Manufacturers have used plastic gears to reduce
costs in consumer items including copy machines, optical storage devices, cheap dynamos,
consumer audio equipment, servo motors, and printers. Another advantage of the use of plastics,
formerly (such as in the 1980s), was the reduction of repair costs for certain expensive machines. In
cases of severe jamming (as of the paper in a printer), the plastic gear teeth would be torn free of
their substrate, allowing the drive mechanism to then spin freely (instead of damaging itself by
straining against the jam). This use of "sacrificial" gear teeth avoided destroying the much more
expensive motor and related parts. This method has been superseded, in more recent designs, by
the use of clutches and torque- or current-limited motors.

Standard pitches and the module system[edit]

Although gears can be made with any pitch, for convenience and interchangeability standard pitches
are frequently used. Pitch is a property associated with linear dimensions and so differs whether the
standard values are in the imperial (inch) or metric systems. Using inch measurements, standard
diametral pitch values with units of "per inch" are chosen; the diametral pitch is the number of teeth
on a gear of one inch pitch diameter. Common standard values for spur gears are 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10,
12, 16, 20, 24, 32, 48, 64, 72, 80, 96, 100, 120, and 200. [36] Certain standard pitches such
as 1/10 and 1/20 in inch measurements, which mesh with linear rack, are actually (linear) circular
pitch values with units of "inches"[36]
When gear dimensions are in the metric system the pitch specification is generally in terms
of module or modulus, which is effectively a length measurement across the pitch diameter. The
term module is understood to mean the pitch diameter in millimeters divided by the number of teeth.
When the module is based upon inch measurements, it is known as the English module to avoid
confusion with the metric module. Module is a direct dimension, unlike diametral pitch, which is an
inverse dimension ("threads per inch"). Thus, if the pitch diameter of a gear is 40 mm and the
number of teeth 20, the module is 2, which means that there are 2 mm of pitch diameter for each
tooth.[37] The preferred standard module values are 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 2.0,
2.5, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25, 32, 40 and 50. [38]

Manufacture[edit]
Main article: Gear manufacturing
As of 2014, an estimated 80% of all gearing produced worldwide is produced by net shape molding.
Molded gearing is usually either powder metallurgy or plastic.[39] Many gears are done when they
leave the mold (including injection molded plastic and die cast metal gears), but powdered metal
gears require sintering and sand castings or investment castings require gear cutting or
other machining to finish them. The most common form of gear cutting is hobbing, but gear
shaping, milling, and broaching also exist. 3D printing as a production method is expanding rapidly.
For metal gears in the transmissions of cars and trucks, the teeth are heat treated to make them
hard and more wear resistant while leaving the core soft and tough. For large gears that are prone to
warp, a quench press is used.

Gear model in modern physics[edit]

Modern physics adopted the gear model in different ways. In the nineteenth century, James Clerk
Maxwell developed a model of electromagnetism in which magnetic field lines were rotating tubes of
incompressible fluid. Maxwell used a gear wheel and called it an "idle wheel" to explain the electric
current as a rotation of particles in opposite directions to that of the rotating field lines. [40]
More recently, quantum physics uses "quantum gears" in their model. A group of gears can serve as
a model for several different systems, such as an artificially constructed nanomechanical device or a
group of ring molecules.[41]
The three wave hypothesis compares the wave–particle duality to a bevel gear.[42]

Gear mechanism in natural world[edit]

Issus coleoptratus
A functioning gear mechanism discovered in Issus coleoptratus, a planthopper species common in Europe

The gear mechanism was previously considered exclusively artificial, but in 2013, scientists from
the University of Cambridge announced their discovery that the juvenile form of a common
insect Issus (species Issus coleoptratus), found in many European gardens, has a gear-like
mechanism in its hind legs. Each leg has a 400 micrometer strip, pitch radius 200 micrometers, with
12 fully interlocking spur-type gear teeth, including filleted curves at the base of each tooth to reduce
the risk of shearing. The joint rotates like mechanical gears and synchronizes Issus's legs when it
jumps to within 30 microseconds, preventing yaw rotation. [43][44][45][46]