Application of modified geometry of face gear drive

An enhanced approach for the application of longitudinal plunging in the manufacturing of a double crowned pinion of a face gear drive has been investigated, with the purpose of reducing the sensitivity of the gear drive to misalignments. The process of manufacturing is based on a modification of the movements applied to the grinding disk during the generation of the surfaces of the pinion, consisting in the introduction of a tilt of the plane that contains the planar trajectory performed by the center of the disk. Tooth contact analysis and stress analysis have been considered to simulate the contact and meshing of the gear tooth surfaces and to calculate the evolution of contact and bending stresses of the gear drive along the cycle of meshing. The performed research proves that an appropriate choice of the machine tool settings permits the avoidance of edge contact, in presence of misalignment as well, without a high reduction of the contact ratio. The results are illustrated with numerical examples.