DEPARTMENTAL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING ME 213: MANUFACTURING PRACTICLE LAB NOTES ON GEARS AND GEAR CUTTING

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INTRODUCTION:

Imagine two plain wheels fixed rigidly to two parallel shafts and pressed tightly in contact with each other. If one wheel is rotated about its axis, the other wheel will also rotate due to the friction between them. The rotary motion is thus transmitted from one shaft to another. The surfaces of the two wheels will move at the same speed if there is no slipping. It is obvious that with the increase in Load to be transmitted, the wheels will begin to slip on each other. To prevent slipping slots may be cut on the cylindrical surfaces of the wheels and projections added between them. These slots and projections form the teeth, and wheels with such teeth are called toothed wheels or gears. These gears will find their applications in over a wide range of articles from small watches and precision measuring instruments to machine tools, automobiles, Aero Engines etc. These are used in preference to friction clutches, belt drives and chain drives where moderate to large amount of power is required to be transmitted at constant velocity ratio. Gears whose axes and teeth are parallel and transmit motion between two parallel shafts are called spur gears.

Figure 1: Spur Gear

Fig. 2: Gear Terminology TERMINOLOGY OF SPUR GEARS: (Fig. 2) Pitch Circle diameter In every pair of gears in mesh two circles representing two wheels in contact are always assumed to exist. Each of these circles is called pitch circles. The diameter is pitch circle diameter. Pitch Point It is the point of contact of the two pitch circles on the line joining their centers. Circular pitch (C.P.) It is the distance measured along the pitch circle from a point on one tooth to a corresponding point in the adjacent tooth. Pitch Circle Dia x Circular Pitch = ----------------------No. of teeth Root of teeth: It is the junction of the tooth with the material at the bottom of the tooth space. Tooth thickness: It is the thickness of the tooth, measured along the pitch circle. Addendum: It is the radial depth of a tooth above the pitch circle. Dedendum: It is the radial depth of a tooth below the pitch circle.

Clearance: It is the difference between the addendum and the dedendum. Whole Depth: It is the sum of the addendum and Dedendum of tooth. Working Depth: It is the distance by which, a tooth extends into the space of a mating gear. It is equal to the whole depth minus the clearance or twice the Addendum Addendum Circle: It is the circle which contains the crests of the teeth. Its diameter is called the outside or blank diameter. Dedendum Circle: It is the circle which contains the bottoms of the tooth spaces. It is also called a root circle. Its diameter is the root diameter. Fillet radius: It is the radius of the curve at the root of the tooth. Pinion: It is the smaller of the two unequal gears in engagement. Rack: It is a gear having a pitch circle of infinitely large radius i.e. the pitch circle is a straight line. Diametral Pitch: It is the no. of teeth per unit length of the pitch circle diameter. It is the ratio and not the dimension as in the case of circular pitch. This is a measure of tooth size in inches. No. of teeth (N) Diametral Pitch (D.P.) =--------------------Pitch circle diameter C.P. x D.P. = Module pitch: It is the length of pitch circle diameter per tooth of the gear. Pitch circle diameter Module (m) = ---------------------------No. of teeth = P.C.D / N = (D.P.) Pressure Angle: It is the angle between the line of action and the common tangent to the pitch circles at the pitch point. This angle is kept small to avoid larger thrust. The standard pressure angles are: 14-1/20 and 200 3. GEAR PRODUCTION: Gears may be manufactured by casting, stamping, machining or by powder metallurgical process. Out of all processes, the most common and accurate method of production of gears

is by machining. You are required to cut gears on a Horizontal Milling Machine. Schematic diagram of this machine is given in Fig. 3.

Fig. 3: Horizontal Milling Machine 3.1 Cutting of a Spur Gear on a Milling Machine involves the following steps: 1. To determine the important dimensions and proportions of the gear tooth element. 2. Mounting the cutter and the job on the machine. 3. Adjust the position of the table to the starting position. 4. Indexing. 5. Repeat the operation till the gear is complete. 3.1.1 Important dimensions such as O.D. of the Blank, the tooth depth, P.C.D. etc. can be calculated for preparing the Blank, setting the depth of cut, and checking the tooth thickness etc. The proper cutter is chosen and it is mounted on the spindle of horizontal milling machine. The dividing head and the tail stock are next mounted on the table, after setting their axis exactly perpendicular to the machine spindle. The gear blank is mounted between the two centers on a mandrel. Adjust the position of the table such that proper depth of cut is obtained, by raising the table. The machine is started and the feed is applied to the table to finish the first tooth space of the gear. After the end of the cut the table is brought back to the starting position. Indexing is an operation of dividing the periphery of a piece of work into any number of equal parts, for e.g. this operation can be adopted for producing

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hexagonal and square headed bolts, cutting spines on shafts, fluting drills and in gear cutting. All these works require a holding device which will permit the rotation of the work about the axis so that periphery of the work piece can be divided equally and accurately. Such a work holding devices is known as DIVIDING HEAD OR INDEXING HEAD. It is as shown below in Fig. 4.

Indexing plate for direct Figure 2: ad Indexing

Index plate for simple indexing Spindle

Crank
Fig. 4: Dividing Head 4. METHODS OF INDEXING: i) ii) iii) iv) 4.1 Direct Indexing Simple Indexing Compound Indexing Differential Indexing

Direct Indexing: It is also called Rapid Indexing. This is used when a large number of identical pieces are indexed by very small number of divisions. The rapid plate is generally fitted to the front end of the spindle nose. The plate has 24 numbers of equally spaced holes. Into any one of which a spring loaded pin is pushed to lock the spindle with the frame while indexing, the pin is taken out and the spindle is rotated by hand. After the required position is reached, it is again locked by the pin. Now the dividing head spindle and work are also turned through the same part of revolution. With this type of indexing with a plate of 24 holes, the periphery can be divided into 2,3,4,6,8,12 or 24 parts which are all factors of 24. Simple Indexing: It is also called plain indexing and is more accurate and suitable for dividing beyond the range of direct indexing. It is always carried out using a Standard Dividing Head. Here, in order to turn the work spindle by one

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complete rotation the crank work spindle requires to be rotated 40 times. Thus one turn of the crank rotates the job by 1/40th rotation i.e. 90. The following formula is used for indexing. Number of crank turns for indexing = 40/N, where N is the no. of division/required. Take the example of cutting a 30 teeth gear. Number of crank turns = 40/30=1 and 1/3. It means for cutting each groove the crank of the dividing heads is required to be turned by 1 and 1/3 of a revolution each time. This is fractional indexing. Here a device is needed that will permit not only 1 1/3 of a rotation but also a wide range of other possible fractional indexing. Index plates with circles of holes patented by M/s. Brown and Sharp Manufacturing Co. are as follows : Plate No. 1 Plate No. 2 Plate No. 3 : : : 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 & 20 2,21,23,27,29,31,33 37, 39, 41, 43, 47, & 49

The plate used on M/s. Cincinnati and Parkinson dividing heads have different series of holes and are provided on the different sides of the plate. The circles are follows: First Side Second Side : : 24,25,28,30,34,37,38,39,41,42 and 43 46,47,49,51,53,54,57,58,59,62 and 66

These plates are also accepted as standard index plates by the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers. Now the fraction 1/3 is multiplied both in numerator and denominator by a suitable common number which will make the denominator of the fraction equal to the number of holes in one of the index plate circle. The new numerator now stand for the number of holes to be moved by the index crank in the hole circle derived from the denominator, in addition to the complete turns of the index crank. Now, for 30 teeth we may select a 21 hole circle and turn the crank one complete rotation and 7 holes in the above circle. 4.3 Differential and compound indexing are more complicated methods used for the number of divisions which can not be indexed by direct indexing or simple indexing. e.g. Gears with 69, 91, 97 teeth can not be indexed by direct/simple indexing. Indexing for such gears is achieved by the use of two locking pins or

by the use of the simultaneous differential movement of the index crank and index plate. These methods will be learnt later. 4.4 After indexing every time cutting of the successive teeth space is done and the table brought back to the starting point every time. Once all the teeth are cut the cutter will come to the starting tooth space when we can say the gear is completely cut.

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REFERENCES: i. Workshop Technology, Vol.II by Hajra Choudhury ii. Workshop technology by R.T. Prichard iii. Machine Drawing by N.D. Bhatt iv. I.S. 2468, Glossary-Geared Toothing.