| Abstract: | Tests have shown that the acetal gear wear rate will be increased dramatically when the load reaches a critical value for a specific geometry. The gear surface will wear slowly with a low specific wear rate if the gear is loaded below the critical condition. The sudden increase in wear rate may be due to the gear operating temperature reaching the material melting point under the critical load condition. Gear surface temperature has been investigated in detail by studying three components: ambient, bulk and flash temperatures. Through extensive experimental investigations and modelling on gear surface temperature variations, a general relation has been built up between gear surface temperature and gear load capacity. A new design method for acetal gear has been proposed based on the link between polymer gear wear rate and its surface temperature. The method has been related to test results under different operating ambient temperature and gear geometries. Good agreements have been achieved between the proposed method predictions and experimental test results. The maximum torque the acetal gears can transmit is 9 Nm for both the driver and driven with a 2 mm module, 30 teeth and 17 mm face width. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
