A Methodology to Experimentally Investigate the Impact of Wobble Errors on the Contact Pattern and Static Transmission Error of Helical Gear Pairs

For a gear pair, both the contact pattern and the transmission error (TE) significantly impact durability and fatigue life. Design and manufacturing processes are often aimed at improving the contact pattern and reducing the overall TE. Other errors, such as runout and wobble, are often induced during the installation of power transmission systems, and they can alter the contact pattern and TE of an otherwise well-designed gear pair. This study provides a methodology to experimentally investigate the impact of wobble errors on the contact pattern and static transmission error (STE) of helical gears. It first provides a description of the modifications to an existing test machine. Next, it describes the gear specifications, preliminary testing matrix, data acquisition and processing procedure, as well as the experimental results obtained with regards to both the contact pattern and STE. The following are observed while describing the experimental results. For a test with no wobble and no runout, the contact pattern remains the same at every rotational position. However, by introducing even a small amount of wobble, the contact will shift from one side of the face width of the gear to the opposite side of the face width of the gear within one revolution. Introduction of wobble may increase the STE and sideband activity around gear mesh harmonics, especially as torque increases. Yet the modest increases in STE and sideband activity seen with the introduction of wobble are not enough to make definitive conclusions. The feasibility of the modified test setup has been demonstrated, and preliminary results have been presented. However, additional data collection should be completed in order to study the impact of runout and wobble on both spur and helical gear pairs with various microgeometry modifications and manufacturing errors.