CONTENTS

1.1 History of gears

1.2 Definition of gears
1.3 Types of gears and their applications.
1.4 Spur Gear
1.5 Helical Gear
1.6 Double helical or Herringbone Gear
1.7 Internal Gear
1.8 Rack and pinion
1.9 Bevel Gear
(a) Straight (b) Spiral (c) hypoid
1.10 Crossed helical gear
1.11 Law of gearing
1.12 Gear profiles
1.13 Meshing of gears

1.1 History of gears

1. We also know that earlier people were living in the caves and the doors of the caves
were made of granite. How were these heavy doors opened and closed?
2. Primitive gears shown in Fig. 1 were first used in door drive mechanism in temples and
caves, and water lifting mechanisms 2600 B.C. in India and elsewhere.

Fig.
1

3. Aristotle in the fourth century B.C. mentions in his writings that gears were being used
very commonly in many applications. Classical origin of worm gearing was made by
Archimedes 287-212 B.C.
4. Leonard da Vinci used multitudes of gears in various mechanisms developed by him 500
A.D. Greek and Roman literatures show extensive usage of gears for forward motion.
5. Toothed gears used for the clocks of Cathedrals and other ecclesiastical buildings during
the middle ages are still preserved in many places
6. German artist Albrecht Durers engravings show a vehicle designed for the Emperor
Maximilian I during 15th century which is shown in Fig.1.2. That vehicle was driven by
worm gears on all four wheels.

7. In 18th century, Industrial Revolution in England led to usage of cycloidal gears for
clocks, irrigation devices, water mills and powered machines. Fig. 1.3 gives the
glimpses of their contribution to engine application.

1.2 DEFINITION OF GEARS:-

1. Gears are toothed members which transmit power / motion between two shafts by
Meshing without any slip.
2. Hence, gear drives are also called positive drives. In any pair of gears, the smaller one is
called pinion and the larger one is called gear immaterial of which is driving the other.
3. When pinion is the driver, it results in step down drive in which the output speed
decreases and the torque increases. On the other hand, when the gear is the driver, it
results in step up drive in which the output speed increases and the torque decreases.
1.2 CLASSIFICATION OF GEARS:1. Gears are classified according to the shape of the tooth pair and disposition into spur,
helical, double helical, straight bevel, spiral bevel and hypoid bevel, worm and spiral
gears and this is shown in Fig. 1.4

Fig. 1.4

(a) Spur gear,

(b) Helical gear,
(c) Double helical gear or
herringbone gear,

(d) Internal gear,

(e) Rack and pinion,
(f) Straight bevel gear,
(g) Spiral bevel gear,
(h) Hypoid bevel gear

Worm gear and

Spiral gear

1.4 SPUR GEARS:1. Spur gears have their teeth parallel to the axis Fig.1.5 and are used for transmitting
power between two parallel shafts.
2. They are simple in construction, easy to manufacture and cost less.
3. They have highest efficiency and excellent precision rating. They are used in high
speed and high load application in all types of trains and a wide range of velocity
ratios.
4. Hence, they find wide applications right from clocks, household gadgets, motor
cycles, automobiles, and railways to aircrafts.

Spur gears have their own advantages, disadvantages and applications.

Advantages of Spur Gear:
1. Spur gears have high power transmission efficiency.
2. They are compact and easy to install.
3. They offer constant velocity ratio.

4. Unlike belt drives, spur gear drives have no slip.

5. Spur gears are highly reliable.
6. They can be used to transmit large amount of power (of the order of 50,000 kW).
Disadvantages of Spur Gear:
1. Spur gear drives are costly when compared to belt drives.
2. They have a limited center distance. This is because in a spur gear drive, the gears should
be meshed and they should be in direct contact with each other.
3. Spur gears produce a lot of noise when operating at high speeds.
4. They cannot be used for long distance power transmission.
5. Gear teeth experience a large amount of stress.
Applications of Spur Gear:
Spur gears have a wide range of applications. They are used in:
1. Metal cutting machines

7. Gear motors and gear pumps

2. Power plants

8. Rack and pinion mechanisms

3. Marine engines

9. Material handling equipments

4. Mechanical clocks and watches

10. Automobile gear boxes

5. Fuel pumps

11. Steel mills

6. Washing Machines

12. Rolling mills

13.
1.5 HELICAL GEARS:1. The teeth on helical gears are cut at an angle to the face of the gear. When two teeth on a
helical gear system engage, the contact starts at one end of the tooth and gradually
spreads as the gears rotate, until the two teeth are in full engagement.
2. This gradual engagement makes helical gears operate much more smoothly and quietly
than spur gears. For this reason, helical gears are used in almost all car transmissions.
3. Because of the angle of the teeth on helical gears, they create a thrust load on the gear
when they mesh. Devices that use helical gears have bearings that can support this thrust
load.
4. One interesting thing about helical gears is that if the angles of the gear teeth are correct,
they can be mounted on perpendicular shafts, adjusting the rotation angle by 90 degrees.
14.
5. Helical gears are used for parallel shaft drives. They have teeth inclined to the axis as shown in
Fig. 1.6.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.

Fig. 1.6.

23.
6. Hence for the same width, their teeth are longer than spur gears and have higher load carrying
capacity.
7. Their contact ratio is higher than spur gears and they operate smoother and quieter than spur
gears.
8. Their precision rating is good. They are recommended for very high speeds and loads. Thus, these
gears find wide applications in automotive gearboxes.
9. Their efficiency is slightly lower than spur gears. The helix angle also introduces axial
thrust on the shaft.
24.

25. Disadvantages:1. Helical gears have a higher load capacity but are expensive to manufacture.
2. As someone already stated, they have an axial thrust for which needs to be compensated by thrust
bearings. This can however be overcome by the use of double helical gears by having teeth with a
'v' shape.

3. Also the friction between the mesh teeth is higher and needs to be lubricated by special
lubricants. And since the area of contact is longer, the efficiency is low.
26. Applications:1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Presses
Machine tools
Material handling
Feed drives
Marine applications

1.6 DOUBLE HELICAL GEAR OR HERRINGBONE GEAR:1. Double helical or Herringbone gears used for transmitting power between two parallel
shafts.
2. They have opposing helical teeth with or without a gap depending on the manufacturing
method adopted
3. Two axial thrusts oppose each other and nullify. Hence the shaft is free from any axial
force.
4. Though their load capacity is very high, manufacturing difficulty makes them costlier
than single helical gear.
5. Their applications are limited to high capacity reduction drives like that of cement mills
and crushers.

27.
28.
29.

30. 1.7. INTERNAL GEAR:31.

1. Internal gears are used for transmitting power between two parallel shafts.

2. In these gears, annular wheels are having teeth on the inner periphery. This makes the
drive very compact Fig.1.7. In these drives, the meshing pinion and annular gear are
running in the same direction their precision rating is fair.
3. They are useful for high load and high speed application with high reduction ratio.

32.
33.
34.

34. Applications of these gears can be seen in planetary gear drives of automobile
automatic transmissions, reduction gearboxes of cement mills, step-up drives of wind
mills.
35.
36. They are not recommended for precision meshes because of design, fabrication,
and inspection limitations. They should only be used when internal feature is necessary.
However, today precision machining capability has led to their usage even in position
devices like antenna drives.
37.
38. 1.8 Rack and Pinion:1. Rack is a segment of a gear of infinite diameter. The tooth can be spur as in Fig. 1.8 or helical as
in Fig.1.9.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.

45.
46.

Fig. 1.8

Fig. 1.9

2. This type of gearing is used for converting rotary motion into translator motion or visa versa.
47.
48. 1.9a STRAIGHT BEVEL GEAR:-

1. Straight bevel gears are used for transmitting power between intersecting shafts,
Fig. 1.10.
49.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54.
55.

Fig. 1.10.

56.

2. They can operate under high speeds and high loads.

3. Their precision rating is fair to good.
4. They are suitable for 1:1 and higher velocity ratios and for right-angle meshes to any
other angles.
5. Their good choice is for right angle drive of particularly low ratios.
6. However, complicated both form and fabrication limits achievement of precision. They
should be located at one of the less critical meshes of the train.
7. Wide application of the straight bevel drives is in automotive differentials, right angle
drives of blenders and conveyors.

57. 1.9b SPIRAL BEVEL

GEAR:-

1. Spiral bevel gears shown in Fig.

transmitting power between
2. Because of the spiral tooth, the
contact ratio is more. They
bevel gears and have higher load
3. But, their efficiency is slightly

1.11 are also used for

intersecting shafts.
contact length is more and
operate smoother than straight
capacity.
lower than straight bevel gear.

58.

Fig. 1.11

59. 1.9c HYPOID BEVEL GEAR:1. These gears are also used for right angle drive in which the axes do not intersect.
2. This permits the lowering of the pinion axis which is an added advantage in automobile
in avoiding hump inside the automobile drive line power transmission.
3. However, the non intersection introduces a considerable amount of sliding and the drive
requires good lubrication to reduce the friction and wear.
4. Their efficiency is lower than other two types of bevel gears. These gears are widely used
in current day automobile drive line power transmission.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64.
65.
66.

67.
68.

Fig. 1.12

69. 1.9. WORM GEAR:1. Worm and worm gear pair consists of a worm, which is very similar to a screw and a worm gear,
which is a helical gear as shown in Fig. 1.13.

70.
2. They are used in right-angle skew shafts. In these gears, the engagement occurs without any
shock.
3. The sliding action prevalent in the system while resulting in quieter operation produces
considerable frictional heat.
4. High reduction ratios 8 to 400 are possible. Efficiency of these gears is low anywhere from 90%
to 40 %.
5. Higher speed ratio gears are non-reversible. Their precision rating is fair to good. They need good
lubrication for heat dissipation and for improving the efficiency. The drives are very compact.
6. Worm gearing finds wide application in material handling and transportation machinery, machine
tools, automobiles etc.
71.
72.
73.

74. Type

75. Features and

77. Applications

78. Comments
Regarding
Precision

83. Applicable to
all types of
trains and a
wide range of
velocity ratios.

84. Simplest tooth

elements
offering
maximum
precision. First
choice,
recommended

76. Precision
Rating
79. Spur

80. Parallel
Shafting.
81. High speeds
and loads
highest
efficiency

82. Precision
Rating is
excellent

85. Helical

86. Parallel
Shafting. Very
high speeds
and loads.
Efficiency
slightly less
than spur
mesh.

for all the gear

meshes, except
where very
high speeds
and loads or
special features
of other types,
such as right
angle drive,
cannot be
avoided.
88. Most
applicable to
high speeds
and loads; also
used whenever
spurs are used.

89. Equivalent
quality to
spurs, except
for
complication of
helix angle.
Recommended
for all highspeed and
high-load
meshes. Axial
thrust
component
must be
accommodated.

97. Relatively low

velocity ratio;
low speeds and
light loads
only. Any
angle skew
shafts.

98. To be avoided
for precision
meshes. Point
contact limits
capacity and
precision.
Suitable for
right angle
drives, if light
load. A less
expensive
substitute for
bevel gears.
Good
lubrication
essential
because of
point of contact
and high

87. Precision
Rating is good

90. Crossed
91. Helical

92. Skewed
shafting. Point
contact.
93. High sliding
94. Low speeds
95. Light loads
96. Precision
Rating is poor

sliding action.

99. Internal spur

106.

113.

Bevel

Worm mesh

100.

Paralle
l shafts

101.

High
speeds

102.

High
loads

103.

Precisi
on Rating is
fair

107.

Interse
cting shafts,

108.

High
speeds,

109.

High
loads.

110.

Precisi
on Rating is
fair to good

114.

Rightangle skew
shafts,

115.
High
velocity ratio,
116.

High
speeds and
loads, Low

104.

Interna
l drives
requiring high
speeds and
high loads;
offers low
sliding and
high stress
loading; good
for high
capacity, long
life. Used in
planetary gears
to produce
large reduction
ratios.

105.
Not
recommended
for precision
meshes
because of
design,
fabrication, and
inspection
limitations.
Should only be
used when
internal feature
is necessary.

111.

112.
Good
choice for right
angle drive,
particularly
low ratios.
However
complicated
both form and
fabrication
limits
achievement of
precision.
Should be
located at one
of the less
critical meshes
of the train.

Suitabl
e for 1:1 and
higher velocity
ratios and for
right-angle
meshes (and
other angles)

118.
High
velocity ratio
119.
120.

Angula
r meshes
High
loads

121.
Worm
can be made to
high precision,
but worm gear
has inherent
limitations. To
be considered
for average
precision
meshes, but

efficiency,
Most designs
nonreversible.
117.
Precisi
on rating is fair
to good

122.

can be of high
precision with
care. Best
choice for
combination
high velocity
ratio and rightangle drive.
High sliding
requires
excellent
lubrication.