Design and manufacture of new type of non-circular cylindrical gear generated by face-milling method

Face-milling cutting method, widely used in the generation of spiral bevel gear, can also be applied to cylindrical gear fabrication. This paper, generalizing the method to non-circular gear fabrication, proposes a new curvilinear non-circular cylindrical gear type. Compared to spur non-circular gear, this new gear type has a higher contact ratio and compared to helix non-circular gear, it has a smaller axial thrust force. Besides, demonstrating a localized contact pattern, the gear is insensitive to processing and alignment errors. Furthermore, during the driving process, the gear can retain oil within the concave tooth surface, bringing better lubrication. Based on the face-milling cutting method and non-circular gear meshing theory, this paper investigates into curvilinear non-circular gear generation, including the mathematical model for design and the linkage model for manufacture. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.