A calculation method of tooth profile modification for tooth contact analysis technology

Tooth contact analysis (TCA) technology is an approach for computerized simulation of meshing of aligned and misaligned gear, which has been widely used in the design of gears. In TCA technology, the gear modification is completed by first modifying the cutter and then using the cutter to cut the gear blank. The obtained results are the modification parameters of cutter rather than those of gear. With the rapid development of numerical control technology, directly modifying tooth profile becomes more convenient than modifying cutter to the complete tooth profile modification. However, at present, there is no bridge between TCA technology and tooth profile direct modification. Therefore, a calculation method of tooth profile modification for TCA technology is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the simulation process of machining gear by standard rack cutter is introduced. The profile equation and coordinates for standard gear tooth profile are given. Secondly, the simulation process of machining gear by modified rack cutter is introduced. The profile equation and coordinates for modified gear tooth profile are derived. Finally, by comparing the standard tooth profile with the modified tooth profile, the modification of tooth profile is calculated. Thus, the modification parameters of rack cutter obtained by TCA technology can be converted into the modification of tooth profile. An experiment which verified the accuracy of method is provided by the comparison between measuring curve of tooth profile of actual modification and theoretical curve of modified tooth profile.