Modified approach for tooth contact analysis of gear drives and automatic determination of guess values Original Research Article

An approach for the development of a computer program for simulation of meshing and contact of gear tooth surfaces is proposed for the following specific conditions: (i) the basic machine-tool settings applied for generation of meshing gears are given, and (ii) the location of the mean contact point of the contacting surfaces is not known. The contribution of the authors cover: (i) automatic determination of the guess values for derivation of the first contact point of tooth surfaces Σ1 and Σ2; (ii) development of a modified computer program for tooth contact analysis (TCA) for the most general case when the tooth surfaces are represented by three related parameters. The determination of guess values is based on the following considerations: (i) the generating surfaces are represented discretely by cells; (ii) the cells for both gears are located on planes of surface parameters that contains n and q cells, respectively; (iii) pairing of cells and their combination is considered in the domains of n × q cells; (iv) determination of a single pair of cells that provides: (a) minimization of deviation of tooth surface normals, (b) minimization of distance between the two cells or (c) an integrated factor m based on conditions (a) and (b). A numerical example for determination of guess values and deciphering of TCA is represented.