Alexandria Engineering Journal (2018) 57, 3139–3149

H O S T E D BY
Alexandria University

Alexandria Engineering Journal

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ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Development of knowledge based parametric CAD

modeling system for spur gear: An approach
E. Jayakiran Reddy a,*, V. Pandu Rangadu b

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Annamacharya Institute of Technology and Sciences, Rajampet, Kadapa (Dist),
Andhra Pradesh 516126, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, JNTUA College of Engineering, Ananthapuramu, Andhra Pradesh 515002, India

Received 18 April 2016; revised 16 April 2017; accepted 11 July 2018

Available online 5 December 2018

KEYWORDS Abstract In almost every mechanism, gears are extensively used machine parts to transmit power
KBE; from one shaft to other with or without change of speed or direction. The need for better and effi-
KBS; cient power transmission has increased the demand for effective gear design systems. All renowned
Gear; formal gear design systems use AGMA (American Gear Manufacturers Association) standards for
SolidWorks; design. The conventional processes demand 150 to 200 man-hours to design the new optimized typ-
Parametric modeling; ical gear. Significant time reduction in design calculations can be obtained by using the soft com-
Macro puting tool. Additionally, advanced CAD Modeling techniques like parametric modeling can
further trim down the design time. Hence, the present work is aimed to develop a knowledge-
based parametric CAD modeling system for Spur Gear Design. This framework or system utilizes
Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) incorporating the rules of AGMA in design computations
and parametric modeling in CAD. SolidWorks customization is carried out to generate the spur
gear CAD model based on AGMA standards. Further, this system is proven as standard, faster,
and simpler gear design system when compared with conventional design system. Results of this sys-
tem are reasonably close to AGMA results under specific conditions.
Ó 2018 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an
open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction tion) or AGMA (American Gear Manufacturers Association

Gear is the rotating machine element that can transmit the
power, motion and torque. The spur gear is the simplest type
of gear having teeth projecting radially. Generally, the effi-
ciency of gear is nearly 98% [1]. The formal methods for design
of gear use ISO (International Organization for Standardiza-
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ejkiran@gmail.com (E. Jayakiran Reddy).
Peer review under responsibility of Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria
University.
standards) [2]. Recently, commercial CAD tools are preferred
by the designers to design the gears. Modeling the gear using
CAD not only helps in drawing the complex teeth curves but
also makes it easy to manufacture the gear as the CAD model
is the input to the present day CNC machine. But, generating
and regenerating the geometries of gear is complex using CAD
software. Additionally, gear CAD modeling is a time-
consuming process because of lack of CAD modeling profes-
sionals [3]. The parametric modeling technique tackles this
weakness as it is potent enough to regenerate the CAD model
based on the pre-specified task in less time in comparison with

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2018.07.010
1110-0168 Ó 2018 Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria University. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
3140
human professional [3]. Therefore, parametric modeling tech-
nique allows the designer to generate and regenerate the gear
model with the help of key parameters like pressure angle,
number of teeth, module, tooth thickness etc. Additionally, it
is quick, skillful and interactive than conventional 3D model-
ing techniques. So, for developing the current knowledge-
based system for the design of spur gear, the parametric mod-
eling technique may be useful as the gear is comprised of repet-
itive complex geometry.
With the help of VBA (Visual Basic for Application) and
API (Application Programming Interface), the CAD software
SolidWorks offers the modeling automation. Moreover, a cus-
tom developed GUI can also be developed. Visual Basic (VB)
one of the software of Microsoft helps to produce the macro
code which is functionally valuable and helpful for executing
the rehashed activities. A macro can store any action done
on SolidWorks screen and be able to reproduce the same later
whenever needed.
1.1. Brief background of the design of spur gear
Generally, in any form of the gear mechanism, the tooth of the
driving gear pushes the tooth of the meshing driven gear for
transmitting the required force. So, it is obvious that the tooth
encounters the maximum stress while meshing or transmitting,
which intern will result in tooth failure. Upon observations, it
is found that the bending stress and the contact stress are the
two main causes of failure of spur gear at the surface of the
tooth. The contact stress can also be called as pitting stress.
The bending stress can be calculated by considering the gear
teeth as a cantilever beam. For analyzing the failure caused
by bending stress, it is required to consider the cross section
of the face width as tooth thickness. This consideration will
simplify the analysis process and can trim down the design
computational time. Because of the direct proportionality
Fig. 1 Terminology of spur gear [4].
E. Jayakiran Reddy, V. Pandu Rangadu
between stress and tooth load, it is observed that the bending
failure will occur when the stress on the teeth reaches or
exceeds the yield strength of gear teeth material because the
stress is directly proportional to the tooth load. The stress
developed at the contact of the two gears is directly propor-
tional to the square root of the applied tooth-load. Contact
stress is a function of Hertzian contact equation. In general,
the contact failure will occur when the contact stress on the
teeth reaches or exceeds the surface endurance strength.
Fig. 1 illustrates the basic terminology of the spur gear.
In 1892, Wilfred Lewis formulated an equation called Lewis
bending equation to determine the tooth stress of the gear
teeth by considering the tooth profile. It is one of the oldest
and significant design equations to consider for the design of
gear, especially for spur gears. It is the primary and easiest
way to design the spur gear. While deriving the bending equa-
tion, Lewis considered few assumptions: gear teeth are inde-
pendent of gear mesh; apply of transmitted load at the tip of
the teeth. These assumptions are quite conservative and do
not meet the reality. In reality, the moment the gears are mat-
ing, a pair of teeth come into contact when the neighboring
teeth pair is still in contact. Therefore, when the teeth are in
contact, the whole load will be shared at multiple contact
points. So, it is conservative to apply the whole transmitted
load at the tip of the gear. Actually, the load should be applied
at a contact point on the pitch circle of the gear as this is the
only point where the gear contacts. Therefore, it can be consid-
ered that the maximum stress can be found at the root of the
teeth at the base since it is the farthest from the neutral axis
of bending. Apart from the above-considered assumption,
Lewis assumed that the teeth load is a static phenomenon,
but it is dynamic in reality. Extra to these drawbacks, the effect
of stress concentration at the fillet is likewise not considered. In
order to overcome these issues, a modified Lewis equation
came into existence with Barth’s equation by considering
Development of knowledge based parametric CAD modeling system for spur gear
velocity factor. In view of the fact that, functioning the gear at
higher velocity leads to greater stresses due to impacts at initial
contact, the velocity factor is generally included in this equa-
tion. This modified equation is used when a speedy estimation
is preferred for thorough analysis. Apart from the velocity fac-
tor, there are other factors that influence the gear teeth: pitch
line velocity; manufacturing accuracy; contact ratio; stress
concentration; degree of shock loading; accuracy and rigidity
of mounting; moment of inertia of the gears and attached
rotating members. In view of the above-mentioned factors,
AGMA developed a refined Lewis equation. Additionally, this
refined equation also considered spur gear geometry factor,
stress concentration factor based on a tooth fillet radius. These
factors bring the equation to much closer to reality. The
AGMA design equations can provide the extreme input load
that the gear can handle in its usage lifetime without generat-
ing a crack. These equations provide more accurate results
with less variance. The AGMA standard consists of various
well-compiled tables and charts for different engineering gear
materials with related stress numbers etc.
2. Literature review
In the past, most of the research has been focused on design
procedure of spur gear. Good spur gear design offers better
contact ratio. Enhanced tooth profile results in higher contact
ratio which provides better transfer of power [5,6]. So, there is
a lot of scope for research on the design of spur gear. The use
of CAD for the design of gear was started around 1976. Cock-
erham and Waite [7] projected a procedure for the design of
helical and spur gear with pressure angle of 20° with the sup-
port of computer-aided methodologies. The procedure is fully
integrated which requires specifications and material proper-
ties as input data. Chong et al. [8] proposed a novel universal
approach for gear design by coordinating the gear dimensions
and its configurations. Cevdet et al. [9] developed an automa-
tion approach for the preliminary design of the spur gear with
the genetic approach. Nenad et al. [10] introduced a realistic
methodology to improve the spur gear design. By utilizing
elliptical portions, Wang et al. [11], introduced a tooth profile
and confirmed it as superior to any involute gear drive as it has
higher contact ratio. Recently, Yangshou et al. [12] demon-
strated a new methodology for producing the dynamic gear
CAD model and to perform the structural and performance
analysis on it. Right from the early days of the CAD involve-
ment in the spur gear design system, much work has been done
to obtain the optimal design of the gear, which has become
complex to the new designer or beginner to understand. With
the intention to rise above this complexity, the automation of
the gear design systems came into existence. These automated
design systems are able to reduce the complexity in design cal-
culation by making use of soft computing tools [13]. But, user-
friendly, knowledge-based, automated gear design system is
not fully explored.
For automating the CAD modeling, Myung and Han [14]
proposed a framework which parametrically models the
machine tool. Parametric modeling technique is skillful enough
to simplify the CAD modeling job and also can limit the mod-
eling time with the support of macro code. Reddy et al. [3] pro-
jected a knowledge-based system for CAD model automation
in SolidWorks software using API, macro and VB. Equally,
3141
with the assistance of visual basic as the development tool,
Liu et al. [15], Luo et al. [16] and Dun et al. [17] utilized Solid-
Works for producing programmed CAD models of automo-
bile chassis, cylindrical cam and seed plate respectively.
Despite the fact that the present influential parametric
modeling technique approaches and CAD packages are acces-
sible to the designer or modeler, an effective modeling is yet
missing because of inefficient CAD modeling expert. Whenever
the demand arises, a good CAD model should allow the user
to edit itself with minimal efforts. This type of CAD modeling
practice will help in generating a flexible CAD model which
leads to good or quality CAD modeling. In the process of
achieving the quality CAD model, Company et al. [18] pro-
posed a variety of finest CAD modeling approaches in view
of dynamic refinement that can be evaluated with a progres-
sion of composed rubrics. In addition, Jorge et al. [19] intro-
duced and verified the novel methodologies for the design
reusability by utilizing parametric CAD modeling. Though
many design systems and approaches are available to generate
the CAD model of the spur gear, a user-friendly knowledge
based spur gear design system is still underdeveloped. Some
of the already existing design systems are generating the unal-
terable CAD models in the formats such as *.step, *.iges, *.stl
etc. and the remaining existing systems are able to generate the
2D model or sketch or animated GIF (Graphics Interchange
Format) file, but not the real CAD models. For any realistic
design work, the alterable CAD model will serve the purpose
as the design process consists of a lot of Yes and No(s). So,
the authors believed in developing a system that can generate
the editable CAD model of the spur gear with minimum load-
ing conditions as input. So, with the intention of achieving a
robust spur gear design system, KBE approach is crucial and
therefore it has been incorporated to develop the system.
Based on the previous works and in order to develop the
knowledge-based parametric CAD modeling system for spur
gear, commercial CAD software SolidWorks may be used
for generating the CAD model with VB as the development
tool. Automated CAD model can be accomplished by translat-
ing geometric information of the part that is accessible in pre-
defined content information shape. Thus, automatic
generation of the 3D model can be obtained with increased
design quality and efficiency. So, the currently developed
CAD modeling system enable the skilled or unskilled user to
generate the 3D model easily. At present, substantive research
work has been done on redevelopment CAD modeling but sel-
dom is found on the redevelopment of the spur gear. This
paper discusses the way to develop knowledge-based paramet-
ric CAD modeling system of spur gear with VB and Solid-
Works along with the macro code. The developed system is
capable of automatic regeneration of 3D CAD model of the
spur gear.
3. Modeling and automation
Currently, the majority of commercial CAD software makers
are developing the software which can produce or reproduce
the part model of any component by feeding the text inputs
pertaining to the model in addition to the conventional
approaches. For instance, for drawing a line on the screen, it
is not required to give the inputs (starting and ending points)
by making use of the mouse or pointer, they can also be given
3142
in the form of text (by entering the 3 dimensional coordinates
of the starting and ending points) with the use of keyboard.
Moreover, these text input can also be given through a com-
puter program. Thus, the automation of any design system
can be achieved with the help of the present CAD software
and a computer program. But, the programming can be done
using specific programming languages like VBA, C++ and
Lisp. Among these VBA is considered as one of the inconve-
nience free and programming language. Commercial CAD
software SolidWorks utilizes VBA as the programming editor.
Therefore, the authors have chosen the SolidWorks software
for developing the present knowledge-based parametric CAD
modeling system for the spur gear. Additionally, the authors
also used the macro code of the SolidWorks for automatic gen-
eration of the CAD model of the spur gear.
Besides the above tools, a database is required for storing
the AGMA standard tables and charts. But, this data should
be stored in a specific table(s) format. This format should be
designed in such a way that the information available in the
AGMA standard tables and charts should be logically blended
together and must be stored in table format. This is the com-
plex task of developing the database for the system. In the pre-
sent work, Microsoft Access database management system has
been chosen as a database for storing the AGMA standards.
Fig. 2 A table in Microsoft Access database consisting of an AGMA geometry factor for bending strength.
Fig. 3 Outline of the developed knowledge-based CAD modeling system of spur gear.
E. Jayakiran Reddy, V. Pandu Rangadu
Incidentally, both VB and Access are developed by Microsoft
Corporation and thus it is trusted that information exchange
blunder won’t emerge. The database has been developed with
all relevant tables and information regarding various standard
factors, gear material properties, standard modules, rules,
empirical relations, constants, assumptions, etc. Fig. 2 is the
image of a table in the database containing AGMA geometry
factor for bending strength pertaining to teeth having pressure
angle 20°, addendum as 1
module, dedendum as
1.25
module, fillet radius as 0.3
module. The left extreme
column in the table is the Number of teeth in target gear.
The remaining column names indicate the number of teeth in
mating gear and the cells in these columns are the correspond-
ing AGMA geometry factor for bending strength.
In order to execute the whole process in a trouble-free way,
a knowledge-base has been developed with the knowledge and
experience of spur gear design experts. The outline of the
developed knowledge based system is shown in Fig. 3. The
knowledge base is an artificial intelligence tool and an orga-
nized repository which can represent and store concepts, facts,
rules, data and assumptions about a particular subject. The
knowledge to the knowledge-base can be accomplished from
the domain experts who can be an academician or industrial
professional or both. The knowledge can be stored in the
Development of knowledge based parametric CAD modeling system for spur gear
knowledge-base in such a way that a computer program can be
able to retrieve the same whenever the system demands. Hence,
it is obvious that knowledge acquisition is the difficult task of
developing the knowledge-based system. The knowledge-base
for the current CAD development system acquired the knowl-
edge from the design experts and AGMA standards. The mode
for acquiring the knowledge from the design experts is by
interviewing, watching and spending some time with them as
these are the most sophisticated ways of gathering the knowl-
edge from a human. The knowledge acquisition from the
AGMA standards is almost readymade as it is available in
written format from books and other literature in the form
of well-defined rules.
Through GUI, the unskilled user queries the system for a
CAD model of the spur gear. The GUI will send the query
to the inference engine without any data loss. The inference
engine is a means which works based on the artificial intelli-
gence system and uses logical rules (like IF-THEN) of the
knowledge-base for obtaining the solution for the posed query.
This process would be iterative for obtaining the best result. In
the present work, the inference engine uses the query to search
the knowledge base and generates the CAD model or some
advice to the user.
Fig. 4 Layout for development of knowledge-based parametric CAD modeling system of the spur gear.
3143
3.1. Development of the system
The scheme of the development of knowledge-based paramet-
ric CAD modeling system of the spur gear is shown in the
Fig. 4. It consists of two layouts called developer layout and
user layout. The developer layout possesses whole system
development process whereas the user layout is the user
restricted area.
The system development procedure:
 First and foremost, standard CAD model of the spur gear is
developed manually with all its features and constraints.
But, while developing the whole model, the procedure
should be recorded in the form of a macro file. The record-
ing facility is available with almost all leading commercial
CAD software.
 Later, a logical approach needs to be established to incor-
porate the AGMA standard empirical equations of the spur
gear into the developing design system. This is the critical
phase of the entire system as it can decide the effectiveness
of the design system. This should be carried out with the
domain expert’s knowledge wherein the knowledge-base is
blended into the design system.
3144
 Besides, while developing the CAD model manually, equa-
tions should be established between the related dimensions
of the gear. For instance, as the base circle diameter of the
spur gear is dependent on pitch circle diameter and pressure
angle, an equation should be established between them. So,
while developing the CAD model manually, the value of the
diameter of the base circle should be entered as an equation
comprising the pitch circle diameter and pressure angle
(Base circle diameter = Pitch circle diameter
Cosine
(Pressure angle)).
 Later, the earlier recorded macro file need to be edited to
parameterize itself with the VB editor that is available with
SolidWorks API. Parameterization is the well-known prac-
tice in CAD automation. It is the strategy of picking and
characterizing the essential parameters for an absolute or
noteworthy specification of a model or geometric object.
In this phase, all the dependent parameters of the spur gear
will be replaced with equation(s) consisting the independent
variables. Generally, this phase is trouble-free as the major-
ity of required equation are already developed in the previ-
ous phase.
 Soon after, a proper GUI needs to be developed for collect-
ing the input data from the user. Fig. 5 shows the GUI of
spur gear which was developed in SolidWorks using VB.
The GUI development process and guidelines are presented
in Section 3.3.
 Later on, the edited recorded macro file should be incorpo-
rated into SolidWorks API. This phase is the process of
installing the edited recorded macro file into the Solid-
Works. This is an uncomplicated process and it can be
accomplished by following a specific procedure recom-
mended by CAD software developers. This procedure
may vary from one CAD software to other.
 Soon after, the installed recorded edited macro file can be
executed by the user for obtaining the GUI of the spur gear.
This GUI will collect and send the input data to the devel-
oped logical algorithm for design calculation. The design
calculation followed in this system are presented in Sec-
tion 3.2. The developed knowledge-base will assist in final-
izing the suitable AGMA standard empirical relations,
Fig. 5 Graphical user interface for Spur gear design.
E. Jayakiran Reddy, V. Pandu Rangadu
constants and approach for design calculation. From the
design calculations, the key parameters like Addendum cir-
cle diameter, Dedendum circle diameter, Base circle diame-
ter, Pitch circle diameter and an equation which represents
the teeth profile etc. can be obtained.
 Finally, with the help of installed recorded edited macro
code, a knowledge-based parametric CAD model of spur
gear will be generated based on the obtained key values
of parameters which are attained in the previous stage.
Afterward, the same system can be executed again for
obtaining the another spur gear with another set of inputs
for another purpose.
3.2. Design calculations
A logical algorithm has been developed for carrying out the
entire design calculations. This algorithm uses the
knowledge-base which was developed earlier and follows a log-
ical way for computing and finding the best dimensions for the
spur gear. The entire design calculations are done with the help
of AGMA standard empirical formulae. In the design process,
some iterations may be necessary until an acceptable design is
accomplished. So, it is vital to keep the design decisions in an
organized way to the developed logical algorithm in order to
attain the best result.
At first, for developing the CAD model of the spur gear, the
available input data needs to be collected from the user using
the developed GUI. In the GUI, there are many fields to fill-in
by the user, but it is not required to fill all, as the user may not
have all the data all the time. So, the developed knowledge-
base will decide the minimum required fields for carrying out
the design calculation. Therefore, the user needs to enter the
available input data fields and verify the system’s decision
for further action. If the entered input data is enough for the
design calculation, then the system will go ahead for design,
otherwise, the system requests the user to fill-in some more
fields. Hence, the approach for design calculation will always
depend on the input data. For instance, if the user fills the
input data like number of teeth required (N), Speed in rpm
(S), pressure angle (Ø), power to be transmitted (P) and tan-
gential force on teeth (TF) then, the knowledge-base will
decide an approach. The preferred approach by the
knowledge-base will calculate the module (m) of the gear with
the following AGMA standard relation.
2
P
1000
60
2
ð22

TF
1
7 Þ
S
m¼ ðiÞ
N
Diametral pitch can be calculated from the module value as
it is the reciprocal of it. Later, by considering the pressure
angle, the key parameters like pitch circle diameter, base circle
diameter, dedendum circle diameter and addendum circle
diameter can be calculated based on the conventional formulae
that are given below.
Pitch cir cle diameter ¼ number of teeth=diametral pictch
ðiiÞ
Base circle diameter ¼ pitch circle diameter

cosine ð/Þ ðiiiÞ
Development of knowledge based parametric CAD modeling system for spur gear
Dedendum circle diameter ¼ pitch circle diameter  2

ð1:25=Diametral pitchÞ
Addendum circle diameter ¼ pitch circle diameter þ 2

ð1=Diametral pitchÞ
The above approach is reasonably simple for design calcu-
lation of the spur gear. But, the developed CAD modeling sys-
tem can handle much more complex design calculation. For
instance, if the user fills the input data fields such as the power
to be transmitted, pressure angle, number of teeth, reliability,
service factor, life, quality of gear, tooth system, then, the
developed knowledge-base system will suggest another
approach for design calculations. In this approach, the vigor-
ous use of AGMA standard empirical formulae are required
for design calculation. It is the well-known fact that, in the
process of gear design, pinion needs to be designed first as it
encounters more stress than gear in any form of the gear mech-
anism. Not long behind the completion of the design of pinion,
the relating or matching gear can be chosen. So, the above sug-
gested approach will design the pinion first by considering
bending stress and contact stress (pitting resistance) on it. As
per AGMA standards, the bending failure can be avoided by
considering the beam strength and the pitting failure can be
evaded by considering the wear strength. So, in the design pro-
cess, if the Eqs. (a) and (b) given below, are satisfied then the
design can be considered safe.
Bending strength criteria : bending stress ðrÞ
6 allowable bending stress ðrall Þ
Pitting strength criteria : contact stress ðrc Þ
6 allowable contact stress ðrc all Þ
where,
1 KH KB
Bending stress; r ¼ Wt Ko Kv Ks
b
m YJ
W t = Tangential transmitted load (N)
K o = Overload factor
K v = Dynamic load factor
K s = Size factor
b = Net face width of the narrower member (mm)
m = Module (mm)
K H = Load distribution factor
K B = Rim thickness factor
Y J = Geometry factor for bending strength
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
KH ZR
Contact stress; rc ¼ ZE Wt Ko Kv Ks
dw1
b ZI
Z E = AGMA elastic coefficient (N/mm2)
d w1 = Pitch diameter of the pinion (mm)
Z R = Surface condition factor for pitting resistance
3145
Z I = Geometry factor for pitting resistance
ðivÞ
St YN
Allowable bending stress; rall ¼
ðeÞ
ðvÞ SF Yh YZ
St = AGMA allowable bending stress (MPa)
S F = AGMA factor of safety
Y N = Stress cycle factor for bending
Y h = Temperature factor
Y Z = Reliability factor
Sc ZN ZW
Allowable contact stress rc all ¼
ðfÞ
SH Yh YZ
Sc = AGMA allowable contact stress (MPa)
SH = AGMA factor of safety
ZN = Stress cycle life factor for pitting
ZW = Hardness ratio factor for pitting resistance
The suggested approach for design calculation is as follows:
1. First and foremost, choose a trial diametral pitch (P).
2. Establish the face width (b). Usually, b = 4p/P. (Face
width should fall between 3p/P and 5p/P).
3. Calculate the bending stress (r) on pinion. For calculat-
ðaÞ ing the bending stress, choose a material and core hard-
ness and other relevant data like different factors, design
factor of safety from the developed database.
4. Solve and obtain the face width (b) by equating the cal-
culated bending stress with the allowable bending stress.
ðbÞ
If the obtained face width is not within the range of the
standard (as said in step 2), then, redo the same calcula-
tions by considering the another material (go to step 3)
ðcÞ or another diametral pitch (go to step 1).
5. If the obtained face width is within the standard range,
then, calculate and check for the factor of safety (SF).
6. Calculate and find the necessary core hardness of gear
by equating factor of safety of gear (SF)G and factor
of safety of pinion (SF)P.
7. Choose the gear material corresponding to the calcu-
lated core hardness.
8. Calculate and find the bending stress (r) of the gear.
9. Check the factor of safety of gear (SF)G by considering
bending stress (r).
10. Now, calculate and find the contact stress (rc) of the
pinion.
11. Calculate AGMA allowable contact stress (Sc), by
equating contact stress (rc) and allowable contact stress
(rc all).
ðdÞ 12. Calculate and find attendant case hardness & select lar-
ger harness value of pinion.
13. Check the factor of safety (S2H).
14. Calculate and find required case hardness of the gear by
equating factor of safety of gear (SH)G and factor of
safety of pinion (SH)P.
15. Select the larger case hardness for gear.
3146
16. Check the factor of safety (S2H). If the factory of safety is
within the range then the design is safe for the given
loadings.
The above suggested approach for design calculation is
illustrated in the Fig. 6.
The design calculations suggested above will be done by the
developed CAD system for obtaining the diametral pitch. By
using Eqs. (ii)–(v) and obtained diametral pitch value, the
key parameters like pitch circle diameter, base circle diameter,
dedendum circle diameter, addendum circle diameter can be
calculated by the developed system for generating the CAD
model of the required spur gear.
Fig. 6 The flow chart of an approach recommended by the developed spur gear design system.
E. Jayakiran Reddy, V. Pandu Rangadu
3.3. Creating graphical user interface
With the support of VB language, SolidWorks enable the user
to create and develop their own GUI. The GUI was developed
in such a way that it should able to collect all the required data
from the user and transfer the same to the logical algorithm for
design calculations. If the minimum required input data for
design calculation is not available from the user, then, the
GUI will not allow the process to move further for design cal-
culations. Fig. 7 shows the Spur gear button that was devel-
oped as a part of the current developing system. This button
can be used for initiating and generating knowledge-based
parametric CAD modeling of Spur Gear.
Development of knowledge based parametric CAD modeling system for spur gear 3147

Fig. 7 Developed Spur Gear Button in GUI of SolidWorks.

3.4. Program development for design calculations

Because of the complexity of design calculations of the spur

gear, it is tedious and time-consuming to manually calculate
the suitable dimensions as per AGMA standard empirical for-
mulas. In order to overcome this complexity, a computer pro-
gram is developed for design calculations. This computer
program will compute and finalize the geometrical dimensions
of the pinion or gear. The output data of this program will be
sent to the SolidWorks software by the developed system to
generate the corresponding CAD model as per the calculated
geometrical dimensions. Thus, design and modeling work is
automated. Fig. 8 illustrates the flowchart of the design of
the spur gear that has been developed, followed and imple-
mented in this work.

4. Results and discussion

In this section, sample results that are generated by the devel-

oped CAD modeling system are presented. Table 1 provides
the sample inputs for the design of spur gear. Using this input
data, the developed spur gear design system generated a CAD
model as shown in Fig. 9. The dimensions with which the
model has been generated are shown in the Fig. 10. These
dimensions are recommended by the proposed modeling sys-
tem. It is observed that these dimensions are very close to
the AGMA results and are compared in Table 2. Normally,
the complete design calculation and CAD modeling process
take 150–200 man-hours if it is done manually. But, by using
the proposed method, the time taken for the whole process
came down to not more than 54 s when it has executed on a
computer with minimum hardware requirements of Solid- Fig. 8 Flowchart of the proposed CAD modeling system of spur
Works 2015. gear.

5. Conclusion and future scope
This paper presents an approach as a preliminary attempt for
developing CAD model of spur gear using knowledge-based
parametric modeling technique. The basic idea behind the
development of the approach is to reduce the CAD modeling
time of the spur gear by accepting the available design data
from the unskilled user. This developed system uses Visual
Basic and SolidWorks redevelopment technologies. The proce-
dure of system development is explained with a reasonable
example. This system is easy-to-use, trouble-free, handy and
capable of improving design quality and efficiency. Results
of this system are satisfactory and are found reasonably close
to AGMA calculations after due validation. The system helped
3148 E. Jayakiran Reddy, V. Pandu Rangadu

Table 1 Sample inputs for design of spur gear. Table 2 AGMA dimensions versus developed system recom-
Parameter Input data mended dimensions.

Speed (RPM) 400 Parameter AGMA Proposed system

Power to be transmitted (W) 12,000 dimension (mm) recommended
Tangential force on teeth (N) 1200 dimension (mm)
Number of teeth 60 Addendum Circle Diameter 494 493.18
Pressure angle 20 Pitch Circle Diameter 477 477.27
Quality of Gear 3 Base Circle Diameter 448 448.47
Load Characteristics Uniform Dedendum Circle Diameter 457 457.39
Tooth Systems Full Depth
Pinion Core Hardness (HB) 300
Gear Core Hardness (HB) 300
addition, by incorporating the gear assembly concepts in the
Pinion Surface Hardness (HB) 300
Gear Surface Hardness (HB) 300 knowledge base, the system can be used for gearbox design
Reliability 0.9999 as well. But, this flexibility can be achieved only with appropri-
Service Factor 1.5 ate changes in the macro file.
Life (Cycles) 10,000,000 Whenever there is an update in the AGMA standard, the
system cannot update itself by its own, a skilled developer
needs to attend for the same. This is a drawback in the system
and it can be nullified by enhancing the developed knowledge-
base system in such a way that it should be able to update its
knowledge whenever AGMA standards get updated. Despite
the fact that the proposed system is limited to SolidWorks soft-
ware, the same can be reached out to the other CAD software
for expanding the openness to all the untalented gear design-
ers. The only additional work for achieving this is to change
the macro file format of the SolidWorks software to the sup-
porting format of the target CAD software.

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Fig. 9 Generated CAD model of the spur gear.
Fig. 10 Dimensions of the CAD model of the spur gear.
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