BEVEL AND WORM GEARS

Shigley 8th: Chapter 15

Outline

I. Bevel And Worm Gears

a. Bevel gears -- Gear teeth are formed on a conical surface and are used
mainly to transmit power with intersecting shafts. See figure 13-3.
b. Worm gears -- A worm gear set consists of a worm (resembling a screw
thread) and the gear (a specialized helical gear) usually on shafts
intersecting at 90 degrees. A worm gear gives very high gear reduction
ratios. See figure 13-4.
II. Bevel Gears
a. Types of Bevel Gearing
 Straight bevel gears -- See figure 13-35 & 36. Simplest bevel gear.
Used for power transmission on intersecting shafts for lower
speed applications or when noise is not a consideration.
 Spiral bevel gear -- see figure 15-1. The bevel counterpart of
helical gears. Better for higher speeds where noise level is an
important consideration.
 Hypoid gears -- Specialized spiral bevel gear used in automotive
applications on drive shafts and differential gearing with the
shafts offset (not intersecting). See figure 15 – 3.

b. Bevel gear stresses and strengths

 Fundamental contact stress equations
1
 Wt  2

a. sc   c  K K K C C  U S customary Eqn. 15-1

 Fd I o v m s xc 
 p 
1
 1000W t  2
b.  H  Z E  K A K v K H Z x Z xc  S I units Eqn. 15-1
 bdZ I 

See tables 15-1 and 15-2 for terms in equations

Rev 4/7/07 1
  Permissible Contact Stresses
s ac C L C H
a. s wc  ( all )  (U S Customary) Eqn. 15-2
S H KT CR

 H lim Z NT Z W
b.  HP  (SI Units) Eqn. 15-2
S H K Z Z

 Bending Stresses
t
W K K
a. st  PK o K v s m (U S Customary) Eqn. 15-3
F KxJ

1000W t K o K v Yx K H
b.  F  (SI Units) Eqn. 15-3
b met Y YJ

 Permissible Bending Stress Equation

s at K L
a. s wt  (U S Customary) Eqn. 15-4
S F KT K R

 P limYNT
b.  FP  (SI Units) Eqn. 15-4
S F K  YZ

c. See section 15-3 (pages 771 – 780) for determination of factors used in
above equations
d. See figure 15-14 for “Road map” summary of bevel gear wear equations

e. See figure 15-15 for “Road map” summary of bevel gear bending equations
f. Straight Bevel gear analysis
 See example 15 –1
g. Design of straight-bevel gear mesh
 See example 15 - 2
III. Worm gears

a. Worm Gearing -- AGMA Equations

 Crossed worm gears usually have a 90 shaft angle
 Relation between shaft and helix angles

Rev 4/7/07 2
    P  G Equation 15 – 26
Where  is the shaft angle
Where P is pinion or worm; G is the gear
Plus sign for both helix angles are the same hand; minus
sign when they are of opposite hand

 The worm gear diameter should fall in the following range:

C 0.875 C 0.875
d  Equation 15-27
3 1 .6

Where C is the center (worm) to center (gear) distance

b. Worm Gear Analysis
 Worm gears have a much lower efficiency than other gearing
systems
 Cooling can be a design constraint due to low efficiency. To
reduce cooling load:
o use multiple-thread worms
o Keep worm pitch diameters as small as possible
 Self locking feature of worm gear drives – sometimes the gear
cannot drive the worm (similar to self locking in threads). To
ensure worm gear will drive the worm:

fstat cosn tan  Equation 15-56

 Worm gear set efficiency

o When the worm drives the gear set
cos  n  f tan 
eW  Equation `15-54
cos  n  f cot 
o When the gear drives the gear set
cos  n  f cot 
eW 
cos  n  f tan 

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  Worm tangential component Wwt (in terms of the worm gear
tangential component WGt )
cos  n sin   f cos 
WWt  WGt Equation 15-57
cos  n cos   f sin 
Where f is the coefficient of friction and λ is the lead angle
Without friction:
WWt  WGt tan 

 Gear transmittal force in terms of output horsepower

33,000n d H o K a
WGt  Equation 15-58
VG e

where Ho is the output horsepower; Ka is the application

factor; nd is the design factor; VG is the tangential speed
of the gear
 The gear set frictional force
fWGt
Wf  Equation 15-61
f sin   cos  n cos 

Where f is the coefficient of friction and λ is the lead angle

 The sliding velocity of the worm at the pitch cylinder V is
d W nW
Vs  Equation 15-62
12 cos 
 The friction power is
W f Vs
Hf  hp Equation 15-63
33,000

c. Designing a worm-gear mesh

 Read section 15-8
 See example 15-4

Rev 4/7/07 4