Numerical computing method of noncircular gear tooth profiles generated by shaper cutters

A simple and accurate numerical method was proposed for calculating the tooth profile of a noncircular gear. This method is directly based on the real gear shaping process, rather than deducing and solving complicated meshing equations used in the traditional method. The tooth profile is gradually obtained from the boundary produced by continuously plotting the cutter profile on the gear transverse plane. The key point of the method is picking up the graph boundaries. The relative position of the cutter profile on the gear transverse plane is determined by the given pitch line of the noncircular gear, parameters of the shaper cutter, and the shaping process data. In comparison with the traditional method, it is universal and is much more efficient and accurate, especially for noncircular gears, which have nontrivial pitch lines. Special problems in gear design and manufacturing, such as tooth pointing, undercut, and fillet interference, are included in the process. As an application example of the numerical method, a square internal gear is chosen from a new type of hydraulic motor with noncircular planetary gears, and the tooth profile of that gear is computed. The gear is successfully machined by electromagnetic discharge (EMD) using the resulting data.