New methodology to reduce the transmission error of the spiral bevel gears

New methods and tools have been developed the last years to improve the understanding of gear meshing. Mechanical industries attach growing attention to the dynamic behavior of mechanical transmissions, including vibration and noise that result. The transmission error of the gear, which measures the intensity of one of the main causes of dynamic phenomena, can be considered as a relevant indicator of gear performance.This paper presents a new design method of spiral bevel gears, the objective of this method being to reduce their quasi-static transmission error. The proposed approach is based on an optimization process including loaded meshing simulations. The simulation model has been evaluated using a helicopter tail gearbox as bench test. Measurement results are given, showing a good correlation with predictions.