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Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICMPC 2017

Design and analysis of plastic gears in rack and pinion steering

system for formula supra car
Ashwin Chopanea, Shanu Guptab, Abhiram Ajitc, Sushant Kakrood, Aniket Salvee
a,b,c,d
UG Scholar, Mechanical Engineering Department VIIT Pune, Pune 411048, India
/e
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering Department VIIT Pune, Pune 411048, India

Abstract

Plastic gears have positioned themselves as serious alternatives to traditional metal gears in a wide variety of
applications. The use of plastic gears has expanded from low power, precision motion transmission into more
demanding power transmission applications. In an automobile, the steering system is one of the most important
systems which used to control the direction and stability of a vehicle. In order to have an efficient steering system,
one should consider the material and properties of gears used in rack and pinion. Using plastic gears in a vehicle’s
steering system has many advantages over the current traditional use of metallic gears. High performance plastics
like, glass fiber reinforced nylon 66 have less weight, resistance to corrosion, noiseless running, lower coefficient of
friction and ability to run without external lubrication. Moreover, plastic gears can be cut like their metal
counterparts and machined for high precision with close tolerances. In formula supra vehicles, weight, simplicity
and accuracy of systems have prime importance. These requirements make plastic gearing the ideal option in its
systems. An effort is made in this paper for analyzing the possibility to rebuild the steering system of a formula
supra car using plastic gears keeping contact stresses and bending stresses in considerations. As a conclusion the use
of high strength engineering plastics in the steering system of a formula supra vehicle will make the system lighter
and more efficient than traditionally used metallic gears.
© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of 7th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization.

Keywords:Nylon 66; Spur gear; Steering System; FSAE; ANSYS

Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9960263773

E-mail address:ashwinchopane27@gmail.com

2214-7853© 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of 7th International Conference of Materials Processing and Characterization.
 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164 5155

Nomenclature
F3 Formula 3
FEA Finite element analysis
FSAE Formula society of automotive engineers
GF Glass fibre
σ Bending stress of pinion
σ Bending stress of gear
Z Number of teeth in pinion
Z Number of teeth in gear
θ Steering axis inclination
μ Castor angle
Sh Surface contact stress (Hertzian stress)
Wt Transmitted load
DP pitch diameter, pinion
µ Poisson’s ratio
E Modulus of Elasticity
Ø Pressure angle
M Speed ratio, Ng/Np
N Number of teeth.

1. Introduction

Society of automotive engineer (SAE) is an organization which conducts competition for undergraduate
engineers, where students design and manufacturing their own car and competes. SAE Supra is one of them where it
is required to design and build a F3 type car. Need arises to constantly innovate in the design by replacing
traditionally used parts with lighter and efficient ones like gear, casing, mounting brackets etc. to get maximum
performance output.
Gearing is considered to be the backbone of power transmission system. In the present time people are
demanding the most reliable gearing system in automobile. In order to fulfill the demands, an attempt has been made
to replace metallic gears with plastic gears. Study and accurate analysis of the gear systems is important in order to
get the requirement of effective power transmission. Plastic gears are considered to be more convenient than
metallic gears due to their easy designing and manufacturing. Out of various high performance plastics studied,
thermoplastics like reinforced nylon 66 and nylon 66 were fount out to be the future engineering material for light
load application. Fiber reinforcement enhances mechanical strength of material which later gives more bending
strength. In this paper an attempt has been made to redesign the steering system for a formula supra vehicle using
plastic gears. The function of steering system is to steer the front wheels in response to driver command inputs in
order to provide overall directional control of vehicle. The steering geometry used is Ackermann, since it is widely
used and simple to design. The material used is glass fiber reinforced Nylon 66. The glass fiber reinforcements
provides better mechanical properties and is lesser in cost compared to carbon fiber reinforced one . Redesigning the
steering system will involve finding new dimensions and parameters for the rack and the pinion, based on the values
of the given vehicle design. Virtual prototyping of the assembly is done using CREO PARAMETRIC software and
analyzed using the ANSYS Solver. Due to transmitting force, sliding frictional and rolling contact between the teeth
of the rack and pinion, contact analysis is performed in order to check analytical results and stress values.

2. Literature review:

Joseph L. Elmquist et al. [1] studied and conclude that the level of industrialization and machine dependency in
the modern day demands for highly efficient mechanical systems, and a major factor that influences a system’s
efficiency is the material used to manufacture it. Plastics, ceramics and other composites are widely used as
5156 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164

substitutes for traditional metallic systems. High performance plastics differ from standard plastics and engineering
plastics primarily by their temperature stability, but also by their chemical resistance and mechanical properties,
production quantity, and price. Matthew Jaster et al. [2] explain the effectiveness of plastic machine components in
place of its metallic counterparts. Study of Plastic gears, has shown that they reduce noise, wear and weight of the
system significantly. Research on the applications of plastic gears also shows its suitability in automobile systems.
At low speeds there is a drastic reduction in noise and vibration in automobile systems that use plastic gears explain
by Ashish N. Taywade et al. [3]. Use of plastic gears also reduces the cost of the entire system. Plastic gears were
used in the gearbox of a moped and its cost was found to be less than its metallic counterpart. Amarjeet R. Gupta
etal. [4]. The need for light weight, low cost and high performance automobile system is very important in the
competition market. Saurabh Borse et al. [5] highlight the importance of an effective steering system in high
performance automobiles, how the smallest change in the configuration of subsystems like suspension, breaking
during cornering affects the performance of the system.
To design any system in a competitive vehicle, constraints are to be followed. The SAE Supra rules require the
design of a vehicle with a minimum wheelbase of 1525mm. FSAE Supra Rulebook [6]. According to Catherin J. et
al. [7] out of various high performance plastics, it has been observed that glass fiber reinforced Nylon 66 is highly
suited for gear manufacturing, and the effect of temperature and torque on the total displacement in gears is found to
be more influential than rotation speed.Van Melick et al. [8] explain that in plastic to plastic spur gear pairs, load
sharing is symmetric around the pitch and the extension of the contact path lies perpendicular to the theoretical line
of contact in involute gearing.Yong Kang Chen et. al [9] found that the failure mechanisms of polymeric gears have
been investigated by testing plastic against plastic in counter conformal, unlubricated, rolling-sliding contact over a
wide range of slip ratios and running speeds. Abhijit Mahadev Sankpal et al. [10] conclude that module of the gear
designed is an important factor; contact stresses decrease with increasing module. This is validated by FEM method
using contact analysis on the gear pair.

3. Steering System Design:

3.1. Steering Geometry and Parameters:

As per the rules given on dimensioning of the formula supra car, minimum wheel base, track width and max
turning radius values are taken as reference and as per chassis and subsystems of car which are given as [6]
• Minimum wheel base: 1525mm
• Maximum turning radius: 4000mm
Geometry setup is the most important step of designing because steering geometry actually decides the
maneuverability of vehicle during different road conditions like bump, jounce and cornering etc. A suspension
system also has significant effect on steering ability of vehicle so, a combined efforts in suspension geometry and
steering geometry were taken in order to design efficient system. Designing of steering geometry involves a brief
study of suspension system of the vehicle. The various parameters like static camber, camber change rate, static toe
and toe change rate and roll steer during dynamic conditions are considered for efficient design of the system. An
optimum suspension geometry was finalized by studying the different behavior parameters of the system during
different dynamic conditions using LOTUS software. Front Suspension geometry used for simulation and studies
the parameters of steering suspension dependencies is shown:

Fig. 1. LOTUS front Suspension Geometry.

 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164 5157

Lot of iterations were performed and at the end of this stage following performance parameters were finalized for
efficient suspension system:
• steering arm length : 96mm
0
• Ackerman angle (α): 15
It was observed that for above listed parameters the dynamic toe change and camber change rate was negligible.A
steering geometry setup was performed graphically and it is according to Ackerman's steering geometry i.e. a four
bar linkage. And following are the calculated design parameters as shown in below Table 1,Table 2 & Table 3.

Table 1.Input parameters for steering geometry. Table 2.Caclulated geometry Design Parameters [11]
Input Parameter Value Parameter Value
Track width (b) 1100mm Angle of inside lock (θ) 47°
Wheel base (l) 1550mm Angle of outside lock (φ) 30°
Steering arm length(L) 96mm Turning radius of front inner Wheel (Ri) 2119 mm
Ackerman angle (α) 15° Turning radius of front outer Wheel (Ro) 3100 mm
Rack travel 112 mm
Turning Radius 3000 mm
3.2. Steering System materials

The materials used in the steering system target precise operation and light weight components. Although
precision and weight are the top priorities, cost, manufacturability, and reliability were also considered. Precision in
the steering system is derived from high manufacturing tolerances and minimal deflection. Defection in any
component leads to steer compliance, resulting in an unresponsive steering system. Nylon can be used as the matrix
material in composite materials, with reinforcing fibres like glass or carbon fibre, and has a higher density than pure
nylon. Such thermoplastic composites are frequently used in car components next to the engine, such as intake
manifolds, where the good heat resistance of such materials makes them feasible competitors to metals. The steering
rack and pinion is generally made from aluminium or steel. A plastic gear made of 30% Glass filled Nylon 66 offers
enough strength and has more strength than unfilled nylon 66. The use of Nylon offers lesser weight of the
assembly, it is cheaper in cost than titanium and carbon fibre and is easy to machine. After considering all the
parameters it was observed that Nylon 66 provides a required strength, it is easily available and excellent
machinability hence we decided to use it for our purpose.

4. Plastic Gearing:

4.1. Type of Gear:

Spur gear was selected and gear type for the application. For rack and pinion, gear axis need to be parallel to each
other and single axis loads are preferred. However, helical type gears are much smoother and offers more strength
for same module and teeth number, Spur gear type is chosen to avoid axial load, ease of machining and for
simplicity. In order to get strength characteristics as obtained in helical gar of same module modifications can be
done in spur gear type. A gear tooth profile was selected based on BIS (Bureau of Indian Standard) recommendation
and the manufacturability. A 200full depth involute profile system was selected because of the following
advantages:
• It reduces the risk of undercutting
• It reduces the interference
Due to increase in pressure angle, the tooth becomes slightly broader at the root this makes the tooth stronger and
increase its load carrying capacity. It provides better length of contact.
5158 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164

Table.3. Properties of 20° Involute profile is given as.[12]

Parameter Value
Pressure angle (φ) 20°
Addendum (ha) m
Dedendum (ha) 1.25m
Clearance (c) 0.25m
Working depth 2m
Whole depth 2.25m
Tooth thickness 1.5708m

Minimum number of teeth for 20° Involute profile in order to avoid interference is 17.

4.2. Gear Action:

Each tooth is, in effect of cantilever beam, the contact tries to shear the beam from bulk. Therefore, material
needs to have high flexure strength and stiffness. Next effect is surface defect generated on surface by frictional
forces and line contact (Hertz contact Stresses). The Rolling action of gears pushes the contact stresses is
compressive type ahead of contact point. Simultaneously sliding occurs because the contact length on the parts of
the gear tooth in mesh are not the same. This causes frictional forces that develop a region tensile stress behind point
of contact. The basic measurement of gear’s tooth ability to carry a given load is to estimate the gear’s tooth
strength.
4.2.1. Bending Stresses:
Bending stress on gear of standard form at pitch line using Lewis Equation is
. Dp
( )=
.
Where, F = Tangential tooth loading at the pitch line
Dp| = Diametric pitch.
b = face width
Y = Lewis form factor for plastic gears, loaded at the pitch point.
Most Severe Loading occurs when tooth is loaded tangentially as pitch line.

4.2.2. Contact Stress:

This stresses lead to failures by tooth breakage due to static loading or fatigue action. Gears must be designed so
that dynamic surface stresses are within the surface endurance limit. As per Hertz theory of contact stresses

=
∅ ∅
+

This calculation has given idea of magnitude of surface stress which is relative to pure compressive strength of the
material.

4.3. Plastic Gear modifications:

4.3.1. Full Fillet Tooth Radius Modification:

Sharp corners in gears are undesirable since they act as stress risers. Using a full fillet radius between two teeth in
a gear eliminates these sharp corners and can reduce stress by up to 20% or more.
 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164 5159

4.3.2. Tip Relief Modification:

When a tooth deflects under load it can get in the way of the next oncoming tooth. This happens in heavily
loaded metal gears and to varying extent in most plastic gears. This type of interference can cause noise, excessive
wear, and a loss of smooth uniform motion. To compensate for this deflection, the tip of the tooth is gradually
thinned from half way up the addendum (the top half of the gear tooth).

4.3.3. Elimination of Undercut:

Gear with small number of teeth will often be undercut which makes the gear weak when using these types of
modifications, some adjustment must be made to the equations for tooth bending stress and allowable stress. If
tooth thickness has been modified, then the Lewis form factors for standard tooth thickness should be multiplied by
the ratio of the thickness of the modified tooth to the thickness of the standard tooth.

4.4. Gear failures

Failure modes for plastic gear teeth include:
• Adhesive wear.
• Abrasive wear:
• Pitting.
• Plastic flow.
• Fracture.
• Thermal cycle fatigue.

4.5. Reinforcement.

Glass fiber reinforced Nylon 66(Polyamide 66 30%GF) was selected as the material is strong enough to handle
tooth loading and have good wear and frictional characteristics. Nylon can be machined as of metal and have high
melting point than other thermoplastics. Reinforcing fibers such as glass, carbon or aramid compounded into a resin
improve mechanical performance. One of the advances in reinforced composites which offer the potential for
increased growth in replacing metal gears is the use of long fiber technology. A comparison of the properties of long
and short glass Nylon 6/6 with glass fibers and PTFE reveals significant improvements in flexural strength and
impact strength with long fiber reinforcement. Wear rate is not dramatically increased since the number of fiber ends
is reduced.

5. Design of rack and pinion:

It is necessary to design rack and pinion system in such a way that, it must provide required aligning torque while
cornering without failure. The system was designed against bending as well as pitting failure. The detailed
procedure of designing is as follow: [12] as shown in Table 4.
5.1. Material Properties:

Table.4. Properties of Unfilled Nylon 66 and 30%GF Nylon 66. [13]

Properties Units Unfilled Nylon 66 30% Glass filled Nylon 66
Specific gravity g/cm3 1.18 1.36
Tensile Strength Mpa 80-85 160-175
Compression Test Mpa 25-30 60-77
Flexure Strength Gpa 2.8 9.4
Modulus of Elasticity Mpa 1733/2744 5000-10000
Poisons ratio - 0.39 0.40
Rockwell Hardness - M88 M76
5160 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164

5.2. Beam strength:

Beam strength of gear tooth is the maximum tangential load that gear tooth can take without tooth damage.

• Bending endurance strength of pinion and gear (σb):

( )= = =53.33 N

• Lewis form factor (Y):

.
= 0.484 − = 0.3151
.
= 0.484 − = 0.3535
Lewis factor is not modified as tooth thickness is kept standard in rack and pinion.
As, × < ×
Pinion is weaker in bending than gear in bending. Hence it is necessary to design the gear for bending.
Assuming b = 13*m, (To ensure safety)
The beam strength is given by:
= × × ×
= 218.45

5.3. Wear strength:

The failure of the gear tooth due to pitting occurs when the contact stresses between two meshing teeth exceed
the surface endurance strength of the material. Pitting is a surface fatigue failure, characterized by small pits on the
surface of the gear tooth. In order to avoid this type of failure, the proportions of the gear tooth and surface
properties such as surface hardness, should be selected in such a way that the wear strength of the gear tooth is more
than the effective load between the meshing teeth.But hardness is not the parameter while deciding the wear
strength. Acetal and Nylon have excellent wear strength but have less hardness values. Thus in order to ensure wear
safety, the surface endurance strength should be less than compressive strength of the material.
• Contact Stress: 16.37 MPa
• Compressive strength of 30% GF Nylon 66= 40-60 Mpa

Thus as contact stresses are less than compressive strength of material bending stresses are taken in picture for
deciding module whereas wear strength of plastic gear is determined most accurately by prototype testing only.

5.4. Effective load:

Effective load was calculated based on functional requirement of the system. While cornering the drive applies an
effort to steer the vehicle, it is a necessary effort require providing the alignment torque to overcome the friction
couple generated by the reaction forces acting at a point of contact of wheel with the surface of road. The friction
couple is generated because of offset between wheel contact point and traction point and also because of castor trail.
[11]
• Steering axis inclination: 4 0
• Castor angle: 50
From calculations;
• scrub radius (d) : 47 mm
• castor trail : 24.31 mm
 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164 5161

Assuming human tendency to apply brakes while turning, we considered 50% distribution of weight. Thus the
reactions forces are computed based on above assumptions are calculated as follow:
FT = 50% wt. of vehicle = 1569.9 N on both suspension joints.
From this we can also deduce that, FZR = 0.5 (FT).
FZR = 784.95 N

5.4.1. Aligning torque required to overcome the steering axis inclination (SAI) is given by;

Moment to overcome offset of SAI axis

=( + ) × × sin × sin
= (1570) × 47.52 × sin 4 × sin 47 = 3806.16 N-mm

5.4.2. Aligning torque required to overcome caster trail offset is given by;

Moment to overcome offset of caster trail,

=( − ) × × sin × cos
= (470) × 47.52 × sin 5 × cos 47= 1327 N-mm
Hence
For 65% 35% distribution to left and right wheel i.e. ( − ) = 471N
= 5133.5 N-mm

5.4.3. The friction couple generated while cornering is given by;

Friction couple per wheel =

× ×
= =1736.11 N
×

5.4.4. Aligning torque for friction couple (Mf) is given by;

Aligning torque (Mf) = friction couple × × sin × sin

.
= 1736.11 × × sin 5 × sin 47 (tyre diameter=609.6mm)
= 33729.94 N-mm

5.4.5. Net Effective Torque:

= + = (33729.94 + 5133.5)
=38863.44N-mm

5.4.6. The tangential force across the pinion is given by;

= × Steering arm length
F = 404.87 N

From design data book:

For accurate mounting and moderate shocks:
• = Application factor = 1
• = Load concentration factor = 1.2
5162 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164

• = velocity factor = 1
=( × ) ×
= 485.8 N

5.4.7. Estimation of module:

As gear pair is weaker in wear than in bending so, system must be design against wear failure.
Assuming factor of safety = 4 (For given system);
= ×
218.45 = 4 × 485.8
= 3 mm

As the module is estimated the basic parameters of gear design is given by Table 5:

Table 5. Rack and Pinion Specifications.[12]

Parameter Pinion Rack
Pitch Circle Diameter 51 mm 30 mm
Module 3 3
Addendum 3 3
Dedendum 3.7 3.75
Face width 40 mm 20 mm
Number of teeth 17 22
Length - 375mm

6. CAD Prototyping :

As per the dimension obtain by precise calculations, 3-D models of steering system were modeled and
assembled in PTC Creo 3.0. Involute profile for gears is generated through standard parametric equations. Center
distance tollerence of 0.36mm is provided to avoide interference. Shaft hole and key slot is as per the available set as
shown in below Fig 2 (a) (b) (c).

a b c

Fig. 2. (a) Pinion; (b) Rack; (c) Assembly.

7. Finite Element Analysis:

Simultaneous bending stress, contact stress and frictional stress are acting on rack and pinion arrangement during
operating condition. ANSYS solver is used to perform the analysis with tetrahedron mesh type elements for better
accuracy of results as it gives more accurate results for local stress concentration such as contact analysis. Meshing
 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164 5163

of different sizes is used and the tool from global mesh toolbar is used to get best mesh results. Minimum and
maximum size of mesh elements are 2mm and 5mm respectively. The Rack provided with fixed reaction supports
and frictionless support as given to the pinion. Moment of 13000 N/mm2 is applied to the pinion in anticlockwise
direction. Yield strength for the material is taken as 130Mpa. The below figures Fig 3-5 (a) (b) shows the step wise
boundary condition and analysis of rack and pinion.

a b

Fig. 3. (a)Forces and Constraints; (b) Contact faces

a b

Fig. 4. (a) Frictional Stresses; (b) Contact nature

a b

Fig. 5. (a) Stresses; (b) Deformatio

Conclusion:

In this paper new steering mechanism proposed for FSAE supra car; in which design and analysis of plastic gears
for steering system with the use of nylon 66 has been presented. Gears mainly rack and pinion arrangement has been
used. Rack and pinion design is based on beam strength and wear strength.
5164 Ashwin Chopane et al./ Materials Today: Proceedings 5 (2018) 5154–5164

As a result of FEA analysis of rack and pinion used in steering mechanism the following conclusion were reached.

• When applying the Moment of 13000 N/mm2 to the pinion in anticlockwise direction, gives the maximum
frictional stress value 2.65 M-pa. this has appeared on the edges of the surfaces on the pinion.

• The maximum total deformation value reaches up to the 0.18112 mm and respective maximum equivalent
stress value 16.296 N/mm2 for same applied moment of 13000 N/mm2 which is at acceptable limit for
given Nylon 66 material.
With above result, it conclude that the use of plastic gears in the steering system of a competitive vehicle like the
FSAE Supra car is extremely beneficial, as it helps in reducing weight, noise and vibrations of the system. And this
is the first attempt towards steering system made of plastic gears. So for events like the SAE Supra, low cost
materials with similar properties are required. This is where glass reinforced polyamide 66 becomes a viable option.

8. References:

[1] Joseph L. Elmquist, Deciding when to go plastic,technical issue, Gear technology, 2014
[2] Matthew Jaster, The plastic gear payoff,technical issue, gear technology, 2012
[3] Ashish N. Taywade, Dr. V.G. Arajpure, Experimental investigation of Noise and Vibrations in Nylon 66 plastic helical gear used in
automobile application, SSRG-International Journal of Mechanical Engineering, ISSN: 2348-8360, 2015
[4] Amarjeet R. Gupta, Application of different thermoplastic gears in the gearbox of moped, International journal for engineering applications
and technology, ISSN 2321-8134, 2013
[5] Saurabh Borse, Pranav Chille, Shubham Dabhade, Swapnil Deshmukh, Atul Kulkarni, Design and manufacturing of an effective steering
system for an ATV and performance enhancement using yoke nut assembly, International journal of research advent technology, E-ISSN :
2321-9637, 2016
[6] SAEINDIA, Supra Student Formula Rulebook, 2016, pp. 15–16, 43-44.
[7] J. Cathelin, J.P. de Vaujany, M. Guingand and L. Chazeau, Loaded behaviour of gears made of fibre reinforced PA6, technical issue, gear
technology, 2014
[8] Dr. H. G. H. Van Melick, Tooth bending effects in plastic spur gears, technical issue, gear technology, 2007
[9] Yong Kang Chen, Nick Wright, Chris J. Hooke, Stephan N. Kukureka, Failure mechanisms in plastic gears, issue, Gear technology, 2002
[10] Abhijit Mahadev Sankpal, M.M. Mirza, Contact stress analysis of spur gear by photoelastic technique and finite element analysis,
International Journal On Theoretical and Applied Research on Mechanical Engineering ISSN: 2319-3182, 2014
[11] Thomas D. Gillespie, Fundamentals of vehicle dynamics, Society of Automotive Engineers, Inc. 400 commonwealth drive, Warrandale, PA
15096- 0001,pp.195-237,275-303.
[12] V B Bhandari, Design of Machine Elements, third edition, McGraw Hill Education, India, 2010, , pp. 653–690.
[13] M.S.Zaamout, the Wear Behavior of Nylon-66 and its Composites under Impact Loading, JKAU: Eng. Sci., vol. 16 no. 1, pp. 85-101 (2005
A.D./1426 A.H.)