MEE 341

Chapter 9

Compounded Gears Trains

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 1

 Gears

Fundamental Law of Gearing

mv = angular velocity ratio out rin din
+ for internal cylinder mv   
in rout dout
– for external cylinder

Internal set External set

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 2

 Gears
Fundamental Law of Gearing
Force at A on the pinion FA  Tin rin in

Force at A on the gear FA  Tout rout out

Constraint FAin  FAout  rin Tout  rout Tin

Power in pinion Pp  Tinin
Power in gear Pg  Toutout
Power flow in a passive system Tinin  Toutout
Let mT = torque ratio
Tin out r d
mT     in   in
Tout in rout d out
+ for internal cylinder
– for external cylinder
MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 3
 Gears
Fundamental Law of Gearing
Reduce velocity → increase torque (lower gears)
Increase velocity → decrease torque (higher gears)
External set of gears → reverses direction of rotation
Internal sets of gears → rotate in same direction

Internal set External set

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 4
 Gear Trains
Collection of 2 or more meshing gears
Simple gear train – 1 gear per shaft
• Velocity ratio:
out  N 2  N 3  N 4  N 5   N 2 
mv             
in  N 3  N 4  N 5  N 6   N 6 

External gears
− Odd number → output same direction as input
− Even number → output opposite to input
− The numerical effects of all gears except the first &
last cancel out
− Intermediate gears are idlers

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 5

 Simple Gear Trains
Limitations of Simple Gear Trains
– Single gear sets of spur, helical or bevel gears
are usually limited to a velocity ratio of 10:1
simply because the gear sets would become very
large

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 6

 Compound Gear Trains
− At least one shaft carries more than one gear
− Parallel or series−parallel arrangement
− Velocity ratios larger than 10:1 possible

Product of # of teeth on driver gears

mv 
Product of # of teeth on driven gears

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 7

 Compound Gear Trains
out  N 2  N 4 
Velocity Ratio: mv      
in  N 3  N 5 
Proof:
3  N 2   N3 
    2    3
2  N 3   N2 
5  N 4   N4 
    5    4
4  N 5   N5 

ω3  ω 4 on the same shaft

N2

out  N3 N 2 N 4
mv   5  
in 2  5 N 3 N 5
N
N4

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 8

 Design of Compound Gears
Design a compound gear train for an exact velocity ratio of 180:1
Find a combination of gears which will give that ratio

Step 1:
– Determine how many gear sets will be needed:
– 2 gear sets with gear ratios of 13.42:1 will give a train ratio
of 180:1
out  N 2  N 4   1  1   1 
mv          180  13.42
in  N 3  N 5   13.42  13.42   180 

– But, cannot use larger than 10:1 for one stage

180
1
– Try 3 stages (or gear sets): 3  5.646  10
acceptable

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 9

 Design of Compound Gears
Step 2:
– Need to find N2 & N3 integers such that:
Where N2 & N3 are the numbers of teeth on 2 mating gears

N2 1
 or N 3  5.646 N 2
N 3 5.646

– For a pressure angle of 25º, a minimum of 12 teeth for the

pinion
The proposed solution is not an integer
N2 = 14 teeth → N3 = 79.05 → The closest to an integer
N2 = 15 teeth → N3 = 84.69
N2 = 16 teeth → N3 = 90.33

in  79  79  79 
          179.68 not exactly 180
out  14  14  14 

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 10

 Design of Compound Gears
Step 3:
The real solution:
Find the integer factors of 180 → 2, 2, 3, 3, 5
Balance the sets as equally as possible while keeping the ratios ≤ 10
We know we need 3 sets (Try product of 5, 6 & 6 for 3 simple sets)

out  N 2  N 4  N 6   1  1  1  1
mv                  
in  N 3  N 5  N 7   5  6  6  180

If using 3 pinions with 14 teeth is acceptable:

– Let N2 = N4 = N6 = 14 teeth
– Then N3 = 70, N5 = 84, N7 = 84 teeth

out  N 2  N 4  N 6   14  14  14  1
mv                  
in  N 3  N 5  N 7   70  84  84  180

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 11

 Solution
out  N 2  N 4  N 6   14  14  14  1
mv                  
in  N 3  N 5  N 7   70  84  84  180

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 12

 Compound Gear Trains
Is that a compound gear train ?
What is special about this train ?

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 13

 Reverted Gear Trains
It is a compound gear train with a constraint
Input and output shafts are concentric

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 14

 Reverted Gear Trains
It is a compound gear train with a constraint
The center distances of the stages must be equal

r2  r3  r4  r5
d 2  d3  d 4  d5

if  d (the diametral pitch) the same

N
d 
d
N 2  N3  N 4  N5

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 15

 Reverted Gear Trains

Design problem
Design a reverted compound gear train
with an exact train ratio of 18:1

Solution
Start with two identical sets
out  N 2  N 4   1  1  1
mv           
in  N 3  N 5   4.24  4.24  18
18  4.2426  10  OK
but it is not rational so we can' t have exact solution

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 16

 Reverted Gear Trains
If the pinions have 14 teeth, then:
N2 = 14 teeth → N3 = 59.40
N2 = 15 teeth → N3 = 63.64
N2 = 16 teeth → N3 = 67.88
N2 = 17 teeth → N3 = 72.12

N2 1
 is an irrational number
N3 18

out  N 2  N 4   1  1  1
mv           
in  N 3  N 5   4.24  4.24  18

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 17

 Reverted Gear Trains
Instead, use the factors of 18 = 2 x 3 x 3
– For 2 sets, the possible combinations are:
• 9 x 2 or 6 x 3
– The best matched set would be 6 x 3, so:

out  N 2  N 4   1  1  1
mv             
in  N 3  N 5   6  3  18

Enforce the constraint

r2  r3  r4  r5
d 2  d3  d 4  d5
N
if  b  (the diametral pitch) the same
d
N 2  N3  N 4  N5

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 18

 Reverted Gear Trains
out  N 2  N 4   1  1  1
Enforce the constraint mv             
in  N 3  N 5   6  3  18
N 2  N3  N 4  N5  k

Where k is a constant to be calculated

N2 1
  N3  6 N 2
N3 6
N4 1
  N 5  3N 4
N5 3

N 2  N3  k  N 2  6 N 2  k
N 4  N 5  k  N 4  3N 4  k

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 19

 Reverted Gear Trains
out  N 2  N 4   1  1  1
Enforce the constraint mv             
in  N 3  N 5   6  3  18
N 2  N3  N 4  N5  k

Where k is a constant to be calculated

N2  6N2  k  k  7 N2
N 4  3N 4  k  k  4 N 4

Therefore, K is set to the lowest

common multiple of 7 & 4 = 28

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 20

 Reverted Gear Trains
Calculate the Teeth numbers (k = 28 ?)
• Since 4 teeth is unacceptable for a pinion, increase K to make
the smallest pinion large enough
• Examine a new value of k = 28 x 4 = 112, which increases the
4−tooth pinion to 16 teeth (>14)
k  7 N 2  N 2  k / 7  112 / 7  16
k  4 N 4  N 4  k 4  112 4  28
N 3  6 N 2  96 N 5  3N 4  84

out  N 2  N 4   16  28  1
mv             
in  N 3  N 5   96  84  18

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 21

 Reverted Gear Trains

Design problem
Design a reverted compound gear train
with an exact train ratio of 40:1 and a
diametral pitch   N  8 in-1
d
d

Solution
Start with two identical sets
out  N 2  N 4   1  1  1
mv           
in  N 3  N 5   6.32  6.32  40

40  6.32  10  OK
but it is not rational so we can' t have exact solution

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 22

 Reverted Gear Trains
Instead, use the factors of 40 = 5 x 2 x 2 x 2
– For 2 sets, the possible combinations are:
• 5 x 8 or 10 x 4
– The best matched set would be 5 x 8, so:
out  N 2  N 4   1  1  1
mv             
in  N 3  N 5   5  8  40

Enforce the constraint

r2  r3  r4  r5
d 2  d3  d 4  d5
N 2  N3  N 4  N5

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 23

 Reverted Gear Trains
out  N 2  N 4   1  1  1
Enforce the constraint mv             
in  N 3  N 5   5  8  40
N 2  N3  N 4  N5  k

Where k is a constant to be calculated

N2 1
  N3  5N 2
N3 5
N4 1
  N5  8N 4
N5 8

N 2  N3  k  N 2  5N 2  k
N 4  N5  k  N 4  8N 4  k

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 24

 Reverted Gear Trains
out  N 2  N 4   1  1  1
Enforce the constraint mv             
in  N 3  N 5   5  8  18
N 2  N3  N 4  N5  k

Where k is a constant to be calculated

N 2  5N 2  k  k  6 N 2
N 4  8N 4  k  k  9 N 4

Therefore, K is set to the lowest

common multiple of 6 & 9 = 54

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 25

 Reverted Gear Trains
Calculate the Teeth numbers (k = 54 ?)
• Since 6 teeth is unacceptable for a pinion, increase K to make
the smallest pinion large enough
• Examine a new value of k = 54 x 3 = 162, which increases the
6−tooth pinion to 18 teeth (>14)

k  6 N 2  N 2  k / 6  162 / 6  27
k  9 N 4  N 4  k 9  162 9  18
N 3  5 N 2  135 N 5  8 N 4  144

out  N 2  N 4   27  18  1
mv           
in  N 3  N 5   135  144  40

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 26

 Reverted Gear Trains
Calculate the pitch diameter of the gears

N 2  27 N 3  135
N 4  18 N 5  144

N
d   8 in-1
d

N2 N3
d2   3.375 in d3   16.875 in
d d
N4 N5
d4   2.25 in d5   18 in
d d

MEE 341 Chap 9 Lecture 5 27