Analysis on factors affecting the meshing region for spiral bevel gears

Abstract

During the meshing process of a spiral bevel gear (SBG) pair, the tooth mesh region, which is composed of the tooth flank’s contact path and instantaneous contact ellipse, is an important factor affecting its transmission. Based on the design of the path, the machine-tool setting parameters of the pinion will be determined, which further influences the dynamic model of SBG system. Therefore, the study of the parameters affecting the meshing region is important for the contact characterization of SBG and lays the foundation for the subsequent research on the dynamics of SBG. In this paper, the effect of a single variable on the meshing region is investigated comparatively under multi-parameters adopting the control variable method and tooth contact analysis (TCA). The findings indicate that contact angle η₂ has the greatest effect on the meshing region, proportional parameter k_d is next to it, and the first-order derivative of ratio of gear roll $m{\prime }_{21}$ is the smallest. Moreover, the larger η₂ can improve the tooth flank’s force situation, the meshing quality and tooth flank’s utilization rate. Finally, the V and H check are performed on the gear pair. Therefore, this work serves as an important theoretical guide in machine-tool settings, tooth flank’s contact characteristic and dynamics for SBGs.