Planetary Gears

MCP101 Assignment

1. Product details and its applications

Gears are used in almost all the machines and vehicles to transmit Power from driver to
driven with optimized torque or angular velocity ratio. Based on the requirement many
types of gears(Spur, Helical, etc.) and drivetrain(Chain drive, belt drive, Planetary or
stepped planetary, etc.) are available. In this report, I am focussing on Planetary gear
(Epicyclic gearing) in particular. By setting the optimum number of teeth of gears in
planetary gears we can achieve a fixed required gear ratio for our vehicle in a more
compact way!

2. Identification of different parts and their specifications

1. Sun gear
The gear in the center surrounded by three planet gears is called sun gear. Sun
gear is a spur gear with external teeth.

2. Planet gears
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The three spur gears around sun gear are planets gear having external teeth.
Planet gear meshes with both sun gear and the ring gear. There is no hard and
fast rule to keep three planet gear. It can be four also, decreasing the stress on
each gear but increasing weight and cost alongside.

3. Ring gear
The outermost gear is called Ring gear. It is a spur gear with internal teeth. It
used to keep stationary but maybe moving based on the required Gear ratio.

Gear Module(D/N) Pressure angle No. of teeth Diameter Number

(mm) (in degrees) N D (mm)

Sun 1.5 20 18 30 1

Planet 1.5 20 24 39 3

Ring 1.5 20 66 102 1

3. Materials Selection
There are certain parameter to be considered before selecting the material

Parameters AISI 4140 AISI 4130 AISI 4340 AISI 8620 Ti Alloy

Tensile 655 560 470 530 950

Strength(MPa)

Yield Strength(MPa) 415 460 140 385 880

Density (g/cm^3) 7.85 7.85 7.85 7.85 4.43

Ductility High High High Good High

Hardness(HB) 54 195 217 341 334

Wear Resistance Significant Good High Good High

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Machinability* 65 70 50 65 --NA--

*Based on 100% machinability for AISI 1212 steel

As we see different steel have respective pros and cons. To decide the best optimum
material we must have to decide the priority(weightage) based on our requirement.

Comparison of Matrix Scoring(relative score out of 10)

Parameter Weightage AISI 4140 AISI 4130 AISI 4340 AISI 8620 Ti Alloy

Tensile Strength 8 9 8 7 8 10

Yield Strength 10 9 8 6 7 10

Density 8 8 8 8 8 9

Ductility 8 8 8 9 7 10

Hardness 10 9 8 8 7 10

Wear Resistance 10 6 7 9 8 8

Machinability* 10 7 8 8 9 6

Availability 10 7 8 10 7 5

Cost 8 6 7 7 6 4

Total 728 718 738 668 694

**Weightage and score given above are based on my personal understanding.

Based on the above comparison we can state that AISI 4340 proves better than all other
material taking the factor of availability
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4. Manufacturing processes used to make each part

The complete process of manufacturing gears follow multiple steps,

There are multiple processes available for gear manufacturing some famous are
Hobbing, Shaping, Wire EDM, and CNC, etc. Based on availability and cost hobbing and
shaping should be used.

● Hobbing
It is a machining process for gear cutting, cutting splines, sprockets, etc using a special
kind of milling machine and a cutting tool known as a hob. It results in relatively faster
mass production with satisfactory accuracy.

● Shaping
Being a convenient and versatile method of gear cutting though the comparatively slow
process of gear manufacturing as it follows a single cut at a time. Gear shapes are more
precisely formed.

Hobbing Process Shaping process

Image source - Google

As Hobbing process can not be used to make internal teeth while shaping can be used.
We choose to make Ring Gear with shaping while Sun and planet gear by Hobbing
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5. Joining and Assembly of parts

Mostly the input is given to the Sun Gear(Driver shaft meets with sun gear) and the Ring
Gear is kept stationary, and the output is taken from the Planet Gears with the help of a
carrier(Connected to the center of each planet gear).

6. Cost analysis of the product

The main cost components are gear manufacturing and material price. However,
complete manufacturing requires lathing, finishing, grinding, hardening of gears which
also increase the overall cost of our product.
No. Face Material
Gear of Diameter Width Volume require Material Manufacturing Net Price
Type teeth (MM) (MM) (cm^3) (gm) Price(INR) Price Number (INR)

Sun 18 30 22 15.551 122.074 13.4282 300 1 313.428

Planet 24 39 22 26.281 206.306 22.6936 400 3 1268.081

Ring 66 102 22 179.768 1411.18 155.2299 1000 1 1155.230

Total 191.3517 1700 => 2736.739

References used-
Density of AISI 4340 = 7.85 gm/cm^3
Price of AISI 4340 taken = Rs.110/Kg
Manufacturing by hobbing = 300-400 INR per Gear (Approx Figure)
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Manufacturing by shaping = 1000 INR of Ring gear (As the diameter is much larger)
The diameter of the cylinder require that is addendum diameter of gear, calculated by =
(module * no. of teeth + 2*module)

7. Comparison of performance and cost with other similar

products
For power transmission, there are many options available in the market. So to choose
anyone it requires analysis. So what we do we first give the weightage to the parameters
according to our need then give a relative score to the options available. Then finally
based on the net score we choose the best one for us.

Parameters Weightage Chain Total Internal Total Planetary Total

Drive (weightage x Spur Gear
score)

Weight 7 10 70 7 49 8 56

Cost 7 10 70 8 56 8 56

Complexity 6 8 48 10 60 7 42

Space 5 4 20 7 35 10 50

Efficiency 5 9 45 10 50 8 40

Future 7 4 28 6 42 10 70
Perspective

Sum(∑) 278 292 314

The planetary gear train got the highest score. So planetary drivetrain is the
best option for us among the three.
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8. Scope for improvement in the design, and

manufacturing.
● Design
Stepped planetary gear, A more advanced but complex design available is stepped
planetary gear. In Stepped planetary, there are total 6 planets in which three are small
planets meshes with the ring gear and three are big planets meshes with the sun gear.
In the stepped planetary size of the ring decreases much significantly so the
compactness increases and size decreases.

● Manufacturing
Hobbing and shaping is the most basic process of making gears but the downside is
Manufacturer not always have the tool with the dimension of your required gear so it
affects the selection process for our gears. For example, they usually use a hob with
standard pressure angle 20 degrees but what if you want 21 degrees!
Then the solution is Wire EDM and CNC! as they are computerized processes and work
with supreme accuracy it is easy to get the gear with any dimension. But they are
costlier than hobbing and also can not be used for mass manufacturing.

Activity
I was studying on gears in this lockdown and acquired much knowledge related to it. But
this time I realized that writing on gears is as much interesting as reading. By making this
report I just memorized all the theories I learned and wrapped it up at a single place. But
due to the page limitation, it wasn’t possible to write many details but I tried my best!

As I mentioned most of the things I wrote in this report is based on my understanding

and learning on gears, I didn’t use much references to write. However, I used to read the
book Design of Machinery by Robert L. Norton and Wikipedia So these sources can be
treated as references.