Gears

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 Gear
Gear can be defined as a toothed wheel that can be engaged in another
toothed wheel in order to transmit energy that gives the change of speed and
direction of motion. It is widely used in mechanical devices. The teeth of the
gear are generally carved on wheels, cylinders, or cones.

Many devices that we use in our day-to-day life have their own working principle.
The tooth and wheel of gear are working parts of all types of gears.
The different types of gears are used to complete the transfer of energy in
different ways and in different directions.

A gear is a component within a transmission device that transmits the rotational

force to another gear or device. Gear is different from a pulley in that a gear is a
round wheel that has teeth that mesh with other gear teeth. Allowing the force
to be fully transferred without slippage.

Depending on their construction and arrangement, geared devices can transmit

forces at different speeds, torques, or in a different direction, from the power
source.

The most common situation is for a gear to mesh with another gear. To
overcome the problem of slippage as in belt drives, gears are used which
produce a positive drive with uniform angular velocity.

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Classification of Gears
The gears are classified according to their application, which is listed
below:

1. Parallel gears
1. Spur Gears
2. Helical Gears
3. Double Helical or Herringbone Gears.
2. Perpendicular axis gears
1. Nonintersection perpendicular axis
2. Intersection perpendicular axis gear
3. Intersecting gears
1. Spiral gears
2. Bevel Gears
4. Non-intersecting and Non-Parallel gears.
1. Worm Gears
5. Rack and Pinion gears
Gears or toothed wheels may be classified according to the axes of the two
shafts between which the motion is transmitted. The types of gears are to be
determined based on the application in which they are to be used.

1 Parallel Axis Gears

In this type of gearing, the axis of both the gears tends to be parallel to each
other. The types of gears that come under this system is gears are:

1. Spur Gears
2. Helical Gears
3. Double Helical or Herringbone Gears.
Application of Parallel Axis Gears

Some typical application areas of spur and helical are automobile

gearboxes, industrial gearboxes, etc. Some of the application areas of
herringbone gears are in the gearboxes used for steel rolling mills, etc.

1. Nonintersection perpendicular axis

2. Intersection perpendicular axis gear

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1 Nonintersection Perpendicular Axis

In this type, the two perpendicular axes of the gearing do not intersect each
other. The two types of gearing that fall into this category are Worm Gear and
hypoid Gear.

Some typical applications of the worm gears are in the passenger lifts used in the
buildings. Another typical application of the Hypoid gear is in the rear axle of
buses, Lorries, and heavy vehicles.

2 Perpendicular Axis Gears

In this type of gearing the axis of the gears tend to be perpendicular to each
other. There are two in this type of gearing too. They are:

1. Nonintersection perpendicular axis

2. Intersection perpendicular axis gear

1 Nonintersection Perpendicular Axis

In this type, the two perpendicular axes of the gearing do not intersect each
other. The two types of gearing that fall into this category are Worm Gear and
hypoid Gear.

Some typical applications of the worm gears are in the passenger lifts used in the
buildings. Another typical application of the Hypoid gear is in the rear axle of
buses, Lorries, and heavy vehicles.

2 Intersection Perpendicular Axis Gear

In this type, the perpendicular axis of the gears tends to intersect at a certain
point. The types of gear that fall under are the straight Bevel Gear, spiral bevel
Gears, and Gears. Some typical application of straight bevel gear is the
differential mechanism in the automobile.

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Types of Gears
Following are the important types of gears:

1. Spur gear
2. Helical gear
3. Double helical gear
4. Bevel gear
5. Spiral bevel gear
6. Screw gear
7. Mitre gear
8. Worm gear
9. Internal gear
10. Rack and pinion gear
11. Herringbone gear
12. Hypoid gear
1 Spur Gear

The spur gear is the most common and simplest type of gear. It is generally
used for the transmission of rotary motion between parallel shafts. The spur gear
is the best option for gears except when speed, loads, and ratios direct towards
other options.

They have straight teeth and are mounted on parallel shafts. Their general form
is a cylinder or disk. The teeth project radially, and with these “straight-cut

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gears”. When two spur gears of different sizes mesh together, the larger gear
is called a wheel, and the smaller gear is called a pinion.

In a simple gear train of two spur gears, the input motion and force are applied
to the driver gear. The driver gear rotates the driven gear without slipping.

2 Helical Gear

Helical gears offer a refinement over spur gears. The teeth of a helical gear are
not parallel to the axis of rotation but are set at a helix angle. Helical gears can
be meshed in a parallel or crossed orientation.

Along with parallel helical gear, each pair of teeth first contacts one point on the
one side of the gear wheel. A moving curve of contact increases gradually
against the teeth face to a maximum then comes back until the teeth reach
contact at one point on the opposite side.

Because of the angled teeth of helical gear they reduce the noise and stress in
the gears, most of the gears in your car are helical. The use of helical gears is
indicated when the application involves high speeds, large power transmission,
or where no noise is important.

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3 Double Helical Gear

A double helical gear is a type of helical gear that has right and left-hand teeth
on a single gear. It consists of two faces of helical gears placed next to each
other and separating them from each other. This type of gear is very similar to
herringbone gear in appearance.
Double-helical gears will eliminate thrust load and allow for more significant
tooth overlap and smooth operation. In addition, it provides an additional shear
area on the gears which is necessary for further high torque transmission. Like
helical gears, these gears are commonly used in enclosed gear drives.

4 Bevel Gear

Bevel gears have teeth cut on a cone instead of a cylinder blank. they are used
in pairs to transmit rotary motion and torque where the bevel gear shaft are at
right angles (90 degrees) to each other. When two bevel gear has their axes at
right angles and is equal sizes, they are called miter gears.

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Bevel gear transmits power between two intersecting shafts at any angle or non-
intersecting shaft. they are classified as straight and spiral tooth bevel and
hypoid gears. These are gears cut from conical blanks and connect intersecting
shaft axes.

The connecting shaft is generally at 90°and sometimes one shaft drives a bevel
gear which is mounted through the shaft resulting in two output shafts. The
point of intersection of the shaft is called the apex and the teeth of the two
gears converge at the apex.

5 Spiral Bevel Gear

These are curved tooth-lined bevel gears. These are considered superior to
straight bevel gears in efficiency, strength, vibration, and noise due to the high
contact ratio but are challenging to produce.

Since it has curved teeth, they cause a thrusting force in the axial direction. The
zero turning angle in a spiral bevel gear is called zero bevel gear. These gears
are known for high-torque and high-speed applications and require little
maintenance.

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6 Screw Gear

Screw gears are a pair of same-arm helical gears with a turning angle of 45° on
a non-parallel shaft. Also known as crossed helical gears, they are mostly used in
motion transmission between non-transfer shafts.

Since the tooth contact is a single point, their load carrying capacity is low, and
they are not suitable for large power transmission. These gears require
lubrication when power is transmitted through sliding tooth surfaces. Screw
gears are typically employed for offset shafts.

7 Mitre Gear

It is a particular bevel gear designed to operate in pairs with the same number of
teeth, diameter pitches, and 1:1 ratio. These are used to change the direction of
power transmission without changing the speed. These are available in straight
miter and spiral miter gears.

Thrust bearings are essentially used with spiral miter gears because they
generate thrust force in an axial direction. In addition to the standard miter gear
with a 90° angle shaft, a miter gear with any other shaft angle is called an
angular miter gear.

8 Worm Gear

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The arrangement of gears shown in the image is called a worm and worm wheel.
The two elements are called the worm screw and worm wheel.

A gear that has one tooth is called a worm wheel. The tooth in the form of a
screw thread is called a worm screw. The worm wheel is a helical gear with teeth
inclined so that they can engage with the thread-like worm.

This wheel transmits torque and rotary motion through a right angle. The worm
can easily turn the gear, but the gear cannot turn the worm. This is because the
angle on the worm is so shallow that the gear tries to spin it. Worm mechanisms
are very quiet running.

It is used to transmit power between the driving shaft having their axes at right
angles and non-coplanar as shown in fig. Worm gears are used in machine tools
when large gear reductions are needed.

It is common for worm gears to have reductions of 20:1, and even up to 300:1
or greater. This feature is useful for machines such as conveyor systems, in
which the locking feature can act as a brake for the conveyor when the motor is
not turning.

9 Internal Gear

In this type of gear, the inner gear has teeth cut on the inside of the cylinder
and paired with the outer gear. Internal gears are mainly used for planetary gear
drives and gear-type shaft couplings.

There is a disadvantage with this gear, which is the uneven number of internal
and external gears due to trimming problems and interference such as the

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trochoid and involute. The internal and external gears in the mesh have the
exact rotational directions while they are opposite when the two external gears
are in the mesh.

10 Rack and Pinion Gear

A rack and pinion is a pair of gears that convert rotational motion into
linear motion and vice versa. A circular gear called “the pinion” engages teeth
on a linear “gear” bar called “the rack”.

Rotational motion applied to the pinion will cause the rack to move to the side,
up to the limit of its travel. The diameter of the gear determines the speed that
the rack moves as the pinion turns.

A rack and pinion are commonly found in the steering mechanism of cars or
other wheeled, steered vehicles. In a rack railway, the rotation of a pinion
mounted on a locomotive or a railcar engages a rack between the rails and pulls
a train along a steep slope, machine tools such as lathe machine, drilling
machine, and planning machine.

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11 Herringbone Gear

Herringbone gears are similar to double-helical gears but do not have a gap
separating the two helical faces. From above, each helical groove of this gear
resembles the letter V, and several together form a herringbone pattern (fish
bones like herring).

Despite helical gears, these gears do not generate an additional axial load. These
are typically smaller than the double-helical gear and ideally suited for high
shock and vibration applications. These types of gearings are not used very often
due to their manufacturing difficulties and high cost.

12 Hypoid Gear

Hypoid gear looks like spiral bevel gear in some respects. For example, hypoid
gears are shaped like spiral bevel gears and high points are used on cross-axis
shafts like bevel gear sets are.

But unlike bevel gear sets the shafts of hypoid gears do not line up with each
other they’re offset. This offset allows hypoid pinions to have as few as five teeth
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in a high ratio gear set while the various types of bevel gears typically don’t
have less than 10 teeth in pinion.

The smaller number of teeth on a hypoid pinion means that larger ratios can be
obtained with a hypoid gear set than with a bevel gear set of the same
dimensions.

Types of Gear Trains

A gear train is a mechanical system formed by mounting gears on a frame. As
mentioned above, when two or more gears mesh together to transmit power
from one shaft to another such arrangement is called a gear set or a gear train.

Sometimes two or more gears are made to mesh with each other to transmit
power from one shaft to another such a combination is called the “gear train of
the wheel”.

Also, each gear is generally attached to a shaft often gears that are meshed
together will be of different sizes, in this case, the smaller gear is referred to as
the pinion and the larger one is simply referred to as the gear.

Following are the different types of gear trains:

1. Simple gear train

2. Compound gear trains
3. Reverted gear trains
4. Epicyclic gear trains

1 Simple Gear Trains

In these types of gear trains, the distance between the two wheels is great
the motion from one wheel to another is transmitted by providing one or more
intermediate wheels as shown in the figure.

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When the number of intermediate wheels is odd, the motion of the driver and
follower is like as shown in the figure. If the number of intermediate wheels is
even the motion of the follower will be in the opposite direction of the driver as
shown in the figure.

2 Compound Gear Train

In a compound gear train, each intermediate shaft has two wheels fixed to it.
These wheels have the same speed. One wheel gears with the drier and the
other wheel gears with the follower attached to the next shaft.

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3 Reverted Gear Trains

When the axes of the first and last wheels are co-axial the train is known as
“reverted gear trains” as shown in fig. Since the motion of the first and last
wheel is alike, therefore a compound wheel is provided. Since the distance
between the centers of the shaft 1 and 2 as well as 3 and 4 is the same.

In an epicyclic gear train, the axes of the shaft, over which the gears are
mounted, move relative to a fixed axis. A simple epicyclic or planetary gear train
is shown in the figure.

Here wheel A and arm C have a common axis at O1 about which they can rotate.
Wheel B meshes with wheel A and has its axis on the arm at O2, about which
wheel B can rotate. If wheel A is fixed and the arm is rotated, the train becomes
an “epicyclic gear train”.

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Gear Ratio Calculation
For example, a pinion with 18 teeth is mounted on a motor shaft and is meshed
with a larger gear that has 54 teeth.
During operation, the pinion makes three complete revolutions for every single
revolution of the larger gear.

This relationship in which the gear turns at one-third of the pinion speed is a
result of the number of teeth on the pinion and the larger gear. This relationship
is called the gear teeth – pinion teeth ratio or the gear ratio.

This ratio can be expressed as the number of gear teeth divided by the number
of pinion teeth. So in this example, since there are 54 teeth on the larger gear
and 18 teeth on the pinion. There’s a ratio of 54 to 18 or 3 to 1 this means that
pinion is turning at three times the speed of the gear.

Now often more than one gear set is used in a gearbox multiple gear sets may
use in place of one large set because they take up less space.

However, the gear ratio can still be used to determine the output of a gearbox.

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Example of Gear Ratio

Let’s see how this illustration consists of two gear sets. This gear set has a pinion
with 10 teeth and a gear with 30 teeth. The second gear set consists of an
opinion with 10 teeth and a gear with 40 teeth.

In our example, the input shaft is turned by an external device such as a motor.
And the output shaft is connected to a machine to drive, such as a pump or a fan
it’s often called the output shaft.

The input shaft and output shaft are connected by the intermediate shaft.

Now by using the gear ratio formula we looked at earlier, we can determine the
ratio across the gears. The first gear set is 30 over 10 or 3 to 1. And that the
ratio across the second gear set is 40 over 10 or 4 to 1. This information can be
used to determine the ratio across the entire series of gears.

That’s done by multiplying the ratio of the first gear set by the ratio of the
second gear set.

So 3 / 1 times 4 / 1 results in a ratio of 12 / 1 this means that for every 12

revolutions of the input shaft the output shaft will complete one revolution. Or in
other words, the motor shaft is turning 12 times faster than the pump shaft.

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Well, so far we’ve looked at how a speed can be changed across the gear set
and we’ve seen how this change can be described by you.

Gear ratios can be used to determine the speed of rotation of a gear set if the
input or output speed of the gear set is known.

Gear Terminology

Explanation of Gear Terms

1. Pitch circle

Pich circle is the imaginary circle that rolls without slipping with a pitch circle of a
mating gear.

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2. Pitch Circle Diameter

The pitch circle diameter is the diameter of the pitch circle. It is also known as
pitch diameter.

3. Pressure angle

Pressure angle is the angle between the common normal at the point of tooth
contact and the common tangent to the pitch circle. The usual pressure angles
are 14½° and 20°.

4. Pitch point

It is a common point of contact between two pitch circles.

5. Pitch surface

It is the surface of the imaginary rolling cylinder that the toothed gear may be
considered to replace.

6. Addendum

The addendum is the radial distance of a tooth from the pitch circle to the top of
the tooth.

7. Dedendum

Dedendum is the circle drawn through the bottom of the teeth. It is also called
“root circle”.

8. Addendum circle

It is the circle drawn through the top of the teeth and it is concentric with the
pitch circle.

9. Dedendum circle

It is the circle drawn through the bottom of the tooth. It is also called “root
circle”.

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10. Base Circle

The base circle of involute gear is the circle from which involute tooth profiles
are determined.

11. Circular pitch

The circular pitch is the distance measured on the circumference of the pitch
circle from a point of one tooth to the corresponding point on the next tooth. It
is denoted by Pc.

Pc = πd/T

 D = diameter of the circle

 T = No. of teeth on the wheel
12. Diametral Pitch

It is the ratio of a number of teeth to the pitch circle diameter. It is indicated by

Pd.

Pd = T/d = π/Pc

Pc = πd/T

Where,

 T= No. of teeth,
 d= Pitch circle diameter.
13. Module

A module is the ratio of pitch circle diameter by m. m= d/T

14. Clearance

Clearance is the difference between the dedendum of one gear and the
addendum of the mating gear.

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15. Total Depth

Total depth is the radial distance between the addendum and the dedendum of a
gear. It is equal to the sum of addendum and dedendum.

16. Working Depth

It is the radial distance from the addendum circle to the clearance circle. It is
equal to the sum of the addendum of the two meshing gears.

17. Tooth thickness

Tooth thickness is the width of the tooth measured along the pitch circle.

18. Tooth space

Tooth space is the width of space between the two adjacent teeth measured
along the pitch circle.

19. Face of the tooth

It is the surface of the tooth above the pitch surface.

20. Flank of the tooth

The flank of the tooth is the surface of the tooth below the pitch surface.

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