A new experimental approach for measuring thermal behaviour in the case of nylon 6/6 cylindrical gears

This paper presents an original method for studying the thermal behaviour of polymer gears. In this method, a new test bench developed by the LaMCoS laboratory is presented. It includes an infrared camera used to record the thermal behaviour of polymer gears and the method permits recording the evolution and distribution of meshing temperature as a function of time. The mechanical behaviour of polymers is linked to temperature and also, in the particular case of Polyamide 6.6, it is humidity dependent. Therefore, it is interesting to know whether temperature distribution is heterogeneous or homogeneous and to obtain the meshing, bulk and contact temperatures in order to compare these results with the evolution of the viscoelastic properties of polyamide 6.6.