DIRECT DIGITAL DESIGN AND SIMULATION OF MESHING IN WORM-GEAR DRIVE

A direct digital design method (DDDM) of worm-gear drive is proposed. It is directly based on the simulation of manufacturing process and completely different from the conventional modeling method. The loaded tooth contact analysis (LTCA) method is analyzed, in which the advanced surface to surface searching technique is included. The influence of misalignment errors and contact deformations on contact zone and transmission error (TE) is discussed. Combined modification approach on worm tooth surface is presented. By means of DDDM and LTCA, it is very convenient to verify the effect of worm-gear drive's modification approach. The analysis results show that, the modification in profile direction reduces the sensitivity of worm-gear drive to misalignment errors and the modification in longitudinal direction decreases the TE. Thus the optimization design of worm-gear drive can be achieved prior to the actual manufacturing process.