A Gear Helical gears

- Is a rotating machine part having cut teeth, or cogs, - Offer a refinement over spur gears. The leading edges
which mesh with another toothed part in order to of the teeth are not parallel to the axis of rotation, but
transmit torque. are set at an angle. Since the gear is curved, this
- Two or more gears working in tandem are called a angling causes the tooth shape to be a segment of a
transmission and can produce a mechanical advantage helix.
through a gear ratio and thus may be considered a - Can be meshed in a parallel or crossed orientations.
simple machine. The former refers to when the shafts are parallel to
- Geared devices can change the speed, magnitude, and each other; this is the most common orientation. In the
direction of a power source. The most common latter, the shafts are non-parallel.
situation is for a gear to mesh with another gear,
however a gear can also mesh a non-rotating toothed
part, called a rack, thereby producing translation
instead of rotation
- The gears in a transmission are analogous to the
wheels in a pulley. An advantage of gears is that the
teeth of a gear prevent slipping.
- When two gears of unequal number of teeth are
combined a mechanical advantage is produced, with
both the rotational speeds and the torques of the two Double Helical gear or Herringbone gears
gears differing in a simple relationship.
- Overcome the problem of axial thrust presented by
“In transmissions which offer multiple gear ratios, such as "single" helical gears by having two sets of teeth that
bicycles and cars, the term gear, as in first gear, refers to are set in a V shape. Each gear in a double helical gear
a gear ratio rather than an actual physical gear. The term can be thought of as two standard mirror image helical
is used to describe similar devices even when gear ratio is gears stacked.
continuous rather than discrete, or when the device does - This cancels out the thrust since each half of the gear
not actually contain any gears, as in a continuously thrusts in the opposite direction.
variable transmission.”

“Two meshing gears transmitting rotational motion. Note

that the smaller gear is rotating more quickly. Although the
larger gear is rotating less quickly, its torque is
proportionally greater.”

External vs. internal gears

An External Gear is one with the teeth formed on the outer

surface of a cylinder or cone. Bevel gear

An Internal Gear is one with the teeth - Is shaped like a right circular cone with most of its tip
formed on the inner surface of a cut off.
cylinder or cone. For bevel gears, an - When two bevel gears mesh their imaginary vertexes
internal gear is one with the pitch angle must occupy the same point. Their shaft axes also
exceeding 90 degrees. Internal gears intersect at this point, forming an arbitrary non-
do not cause direction reversal. straight angle between the shafts. The angle between
the shafts can be anything except zero or 180 degrees.
Spur gear Bevel gears with equal numbers of teeth and shaft axes
at 90 degrees are called miter gears.
- Spur gears or straight-cut gears are the simplest type
of gear. They consist of a cylinder or disk, and with
the teeth projecting radially, and although they are not
straight-sided in form, the edge of each tooth thus is
straight and aligned parallel to the
axis of rotation. These gears can
be meshed together correctly
only if they are fitted to parallel
axles.
Hypoid gear Non-circular gear

- Resemble spiral bevel gears except the shaft axes do - Non-circular gears are designed for special purposes.
not intersect. The pitch surfaces appear conical but, to While a regular gear is optimized to transmit torque to
compensate for the offset shaft, are in fact another engaged member with minimum noise and
hyperboloids of revolution. wear and maximum efficiency, a non-circular gear's
- Are almost always designed to operate with shafts at main objective might be ratio variations, axle
90 degrees. Depending on which side the shaft is offset displacement oscillations and more.
to, relative to the angling of the teeth, contact between - Common applications include textile machines,
hypoid gear teeth may be even smoother and more potentiometers and continuously variable
gradual than with spiral bevel gear teeth. transmissions.
- Also, the pinion can be designed with fewer teeth than
a spiral bevel pinion, with the result that gear ratios of
60:1 and higher are feasible using a single set of
hypoid gears.
- This style of gear is most commonly found in
mechanical differentials.

Rack and pinion

- A rack is a toothed bar or rod that can be thought of as

a sector gear with an infinitely large radius of
curvature. Torque can be converted to linear force by
meshing a rack with a pinion: the pinion turns; the rack
moves in a straight line. Such a mechanism is used in
automobiles to convert the rotation of the steering
Crown Gear wheel into the left-to-right motion of the tie rod(s).
Racks also feature in the theory of gear geometry,
- Crown gears or contrate gears are a particular form of where, for instance, the tooth shape of an
bevel gear whose teeth project at right angles to the interchangeable set of gears may be specified for the
plane of the wheel; in their orientation the teeth rack (infinite radius), and the tooth shapes for gears of
resemble the points on a crown. particular actual radii then derived from that. The rack
- A crown gear can only mesh accurately with another and pinion gear type is employed in a rack railway.
bevel gear, although crown gears are sometimes seen
meshing with spur gears. A crown gear is also
sometimes meshed with an escapement such as found
in mechanical clocks.

Worm Gear Epicyclic gear

- Worm gears resemble screws. A worm gear is usually - In epicyclic gearing one or more of the gear axes
meshed with an ordinary looking, disk-shaped gear, moves. Examples are sun and planet gearing (see
which is called the gear, wheel, or worm wheel. below) and mechanical differentials.
Sun and planet that is, the line of action is constant. This implies that for
involute gears the path of contact is also a straight line,
- Sun and planet gearing was a method of converting coincident with the line of action—as is indeed the case.
reciprocal motion into rotary motion in steam engines.
It played an important role in the Industrial Axis - axis of revolution of the gear; center line of the shaft.
Revolution.
- The Sun is yellow, the planet red, the reciprocating Pitch point, p - point where the line of action crosses a line
crank is blue, the flywheel is green and the driveshaft joining the two gear axes.
is grey. Pitch circle, pitch line - circle centered on and perpendicular
to the axis, and passing through the pitch point. A predefined
diametral position on the gear where the circular tooth
thickness, pressure angle and helix angles are defined.

Pitch diameter, d - a predefined diametral positon on the gear

where the circular tooth thickness, pressure angle and helix
angles are defined. The standard pitch diameter is a basic
dimension and cannot be measured, but is a location where
other measurements are made. Its value is based on the number
Nomenclature of teeth, the normal module (or normal diametral pitch), and the
helix angle.

Module, m - a scaling factor used in metric gears with units in

millimeters who's effect is to enlarge the gear tooth size as the
module increases and reduce the size as the module decreases.
Module can be defined in either the normal (mn), transverse
(mt), or axial planes (ma) depending on the design approach
employed and the type of gear being designed. Module is
typically an input value into the gear design and is seldom
calculated.

Operating pitch diameters - diameters determined from the

number of teeth and the center distance at which gears operate.

Pitch surface - in cylindrical gears, cylinder formed by

projecting a pitch circle in the axial direction. More generally,
the surface formed by the sum of all the pitch circles as one
moves along the axis. For bevel gears it is a cone.

Angle of action - angle with vertex at the gear center, one leg
Rotational frequency, n - measured in rotation over time, such on the point where mating teeth first make contact, the other leg
as RPM. on the point where they disengage.
Angular frequency, ω - measured in radians per second. Arc of action - segment of a pitch circle subtended by the angle
1RPM = π / 30 rad/second of action.
Number of teeth, N - how many teeth a gear has, an integer. In Pressure angle, θ - the complement of the angle between the
the case of worms, it is the number of thread starts that the worm direction that the teeth exert force on each other, and the line
has. joining the centers of the two gears. For involute gears, the teeth
Gear, wheel - the larger of two interacting gears. always exert force along the line of action, which, for involute
gears, is a straight line; and thus, for involute gears, the pressure
Pinion - the smaller of two interacting gears. angle is constant.
Path of contact - path followed by the point of contact between Outside diameter, Do - diameter of the gear, measured from
two meshing gear teeth. the tops of the teeth.
Line of action, pressure line - line along which the force Root diameter - diameter of the gear, measured at the base of
between two meshing gear teeth is directed. It has the same the tooth.
direction as the force vector. In general, the line of action
changes from moment to moment during the period of Addendum, a - radial distance from the pitch surface to the
engagement of a pair of teeth. For involute gears, however, the outermost point of the tooth. a = (Do − D) / 2
tooth-to-tooth force is always directed along the same line—
Dedendum, b - radial distance from the depth of the tooth
trough to the pitch surface. b = (D − rootdiameter)/2

Whole depth, ht - the distance from the top of the tooth to the
root; it is equal to addendum plus dedendum or to working
depth plus clearance.

Clearance - distance between the root circle of a gear and the

addendum circle of its mate.

Working depth - depth of engagement of two gears, that is, the

sum of their operating addendums.

Circular pitch, p - distance from one face of a tooth to the

corresponding face of an adjacent tooth on the same gear,
measured along the pitch circle.

Diametral pitch, pd - ratio of the number of teeth to the pitch

diameter. Could be measured in teeth per inch or teeth per
centimeter.

Base circle - in involute gears, where the tooth profile is the

involute of the base circle. The radius of the base circle is
somewhat smaller than that of the pitch circle.

Base pitch, normal pitch, pb - in involute gears, distance from

one face of a tooth to the corresponding face of an adjacent
tooth on the same gear, measured along the base circle.

Interference - contact between teeth other than at the intended

parts of their surfaces.

Interchangeable set - a set of gears, any of which will mate

properly with any other.