gears

What is gear?

A gear is a rotating circular machine part having cut teeth or, in the case of a cogwheel or
gearwheel, inserted teeth (called cogs), which mesh with another toothed part to transmit torque.
Gear may also be known informally as a cog. An advantage of gears is that the teeth of a gear
prevent slippage.

A gear is a type of machine element in which evenly spaced teeth are cut around cylindrical or
conical surfaces. By interlocking a pair of these elements, they are used to transfer rotation and
forces from the driveshaft to the driven shaft.

Gears can be classified by shape as involute, cycloid, and trochoidal gears. They can also be
classified according to shaft positions as parallel shaft gears, intersecting shaft gears, and non-
parallel and non-intersecting shaft gears. The history of gears is old and the use of gears appears
as early as ancient Greece in B.C. in the writing of Archimedes.

Why Use Gears?

Gears are a very useful transmission mechanism that is used to transmit rotation from one axis to
another. As mentioned earlier, you can change the output speed of a shaft with gears. Let’s say
you have a motor that spins at 100 revolutions per minute and you just want it to spin at 50
revolutions per minute.

You can use a gear system to decrease the speed (and also increase the torque) so that the output
shaft rotates at half the engine speed. Gears are commonly used in high load situations because
the teeth of the gear allow finer, more discreet control of the movement of a shaft. This is an
advantage that gears have over most pulley systems.
Parts of a Gear

There are a few different terms that you need to know when you are just starting out with gears,
as listed below. So that the gears can mesh, the diametrical pitch and the pressure angle must be
the same.

 Axis: The axis of revolution of the gear, where the shaft passes through
 Teeth: The jagged faces projecting outward from the circumference of the gear, used to
transmit rotation to other gears. The number of teeth on a gear must be an integer. Gears
only transmit rotation when their teeth mesh and have the same profile.
 Axis: The axis of revolution of the gear, where the shaft passes through
 Teeth: The jagged faces projecting outward from the circumference of the gear, used to
transmit rotation to other gears. The number of teeth on a gear must be an integer. Gears
only transmit rotation when their teeth mesh and have the same profile.
 Diametral Pitch: The ratio of the number of teeth to the pitch diameter. Two gears must
have the same diametrical pitch to mesh.
 Circular Pitch: The distance from a point on one tooth to the same point on the adjacent
tooth, measured along the pitch circle. (so that the length is the length of the arc rather
than a line).
 Module: The module of gear is simply the circular pitch divided by pi. This value is
much easier to handle than the circular pitch because it is a rational number.

1. Spur Gear
Spur gears are one of the most popular types of precision cylindrical gears. These gears feature a
simple design of straight, parallel teeth positioned around the circumference of a cylinder body
with a central bore that fits over a shaft.

In many variants, the gear is machined with a hub that thickens the gear body around the bore
without changing the gear face. The central bore can also be broached to allow the spur gear to
fit onto a spline or keyed shaft.

2. Helical Gear

Helical gears are one type of cylindrical gear with a slanted tooth trace. Compared to spur gears,
they have a larger contact ratio and excel in quietness and less vibration, and are able to transmit
large force. A pair of helical gears have the same helix angle but the helix hand is opposite.

Helical gears and spur gears are two of the most common gear types and can be used in many of
the same applications. Spur gears are simple and inexpensive to manufacture, but helical gears
offer some important advantages over spur gears

3. Gear Rack

Same sized and shaped teeth cut at equal distances along a flat surface or a straight rod is called a
gear rack. A gear rack is a cylindrical gear with the radius of the pitch cylinder being infinite. By
meshing with a cylindrical gear pinion, it converts rotational motion into linear motion.

Gear racks can be broadly divided into straight tooth racks and helical tooth racks, but both have
straight tooth lines. By machining the ends of gear racks, it is possible to connect gear racks end
to end.

4. Bevel Gear

A bevel gear is a toothed rotating machine element used to transfer mechanical energy or shaft
power between shafts that are intersecting, either perpendicular or at an angle. This results in a
change in the axis of rotation of the shaft power. Aside from this function, bevel gears can also
increase or decrease torque while producing the opposite effect on the angular speed.

5. Spiral Bevel Gear

Spiral bevel gears are bevel gears with curved tooth lines. Due to the higher tooth contact ratio,
they are superior to straight bevel gears in efficiency, strength, vibration, and noise. On the other
hand, they are more difficult to produce.
Also, because the teeth are curved, they cause thrust forces in the axial direction. Within the
spiral bevel gears, the one with zero twisting angles is called zerol bevel gear.

6. Screw Gear

Screw gears are a pair of same hand helical gears with the twist angle of 45° on non-parallel,
non-intersecting shafts. Because the tooth contact is a point, their load carrying capacity is low
and they are not suitable for large power transmission.

Since power is transmitted by the sliding of the tooth surfaces, it is necessary to pay attention to
lubrication when using screw gears. There are no restrictions as far as the combinations of a
number of teeth.

7. Double Helical Gear

Double helical gears are a variation of helical gears in which two helical faces are placed next to
each other with a gap separating them. Each face has identical, but opposite, helix angles.

Employing a double-helical set of gears eliminates thrust loads and offers the possibility of even
greater tooth overlap and smoother operation. As the helical gear, double helical gears are
commonly used in enclosed gear drives.

8. Herringbone Gear

Herringbone gears are very similar to the double-helical gear, but they do not have a gap
separating the two helical faces. Herringbone gears are typically smaller than the comparable
double helical and are ideally suited for high shock and vibration applications. Herringbone
gearing is not used very often due to its manufacturing difficulties and high cost.

9. Hypoid Gear

Hypoid gears look very much like spiral bevel gear, but unlike spiral bevel gears, they operate on
shafts that do not intersect. In the hypoid arrangement, because the pinion is set on a different
plane than the gear, the shafts are supported by the bearings on either end of the shaft.

10. Miter Gear

Miter gears are bevel gears with a speed ratio of 1. They are used to change the direction of
power transmission without changing speed. There are straight miter and spiral miter gears.
When using the spiral miter gears it becomes necessary to consider using thrust bearings since
they produce thrust force in the axial direction.
Besides the usual miter gears with 90° shaft angles, miter gears with any other shaft angles are
called angular miter gears.

11. Worm Gear

A screw shape cut on a shaft is the worm, the mating gear is the worm wheel, and together on
non-intersecting shafts is called a worm gear. Worms and worm wheels are not limited to
cylindrical shapes. There is the hour-glass type which can increase the contact ratio, but
production becomes more difficult.

12. Internal gear

Internal gears have teeth cut on the inside of cylinders or cones and are paired with external
gears. The main use of internal gears is for planetary gear drives and gear-type shaft couplings.
There are limitations in the number of teeth differences between internal and external gears due
to involute interference, trochoid interference, and trimming problems.

Applications of Gears
Gears are an industry essential that are used for the transmission of motion and power in clocks,
instruments, machinery, vehicles, and industrial equipment. They are engineered to reduce or
increase speed in motorized implements and change the direction of power smoothly and
efficiently. Since their introduction thousands of years ago, gears have become an essential tool
for the innovations and improvements of industry.

Made from highly durable materials, gears play a key role in the productivity of machines and
the operations of manufacturing. Each type of gear has varied elements, characteristics,
advantages, and properties that meet the requirements and specifications for motion or power
transmission. The wide variety and number of gears makes it possible to find a gear for every
application.

Setting Rotation Speed

One of the main functions of gears is to change the rotation speed of power with engines being
the most common example. Gears regulate power by their ratios with different sizes of gears
used to increase or decrease transmitted power by their rotation.

Transmitting Power
During the transmission of power, gears intermesh with other gears without slipping and strongly
retain their connections. The motor in a machine may not be designed to move a shaft directly
and uses gears to transmit power to the shaft to power a tool.
Change of Torque
Torque is the rotating force that is produced by motors and engines that is adjusted through the
use of gears, gear sets, gearboxes, and gear assemblies. Smaller gears produce less torque while
large gears produce higher amounts of torque. When a small gear is the drive gear to power a
large gear, the amount of torque increases and speed decreases. Taken in reverse, when a large
gear is the drive gear and a small gear is the powered gear, the amount of torque decreases and
speed increases.

Direction of Power
A common use for gears is the changing the direction of rotation or movement, which is
completed by the specific design of gear pairs. The rotational direction of a motor is dependent
on the rotation of a shaft with the direction of the rotation capable of being changed by the
configuration of the gears.

Gearboxes
Gearboxes are one of the most common uses of gears and are made up of an assortment of gear
types contained in a housing. Gearboxes contain worm, bevel, helical, and spur gears that are
engineered to change torque, speed, power, motion, and force. Gearboxes are a foundational part
of motor driven vehicles and gas powered machinery.

Reference

1.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gear

2.https://testbook.com/physics/types-of-gears

3.https://www.theengineeringchoice.com/what-is-gear/

4.https://khkgears.net/new/gear_knowledge/introduction_to_gears/

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