Product category:
Design and Development Consultancy
News Release from: Feanor
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 07 April 2004
Project aims to resurrect fortunes of
face gears
A consortium led by Feanor, including partners from Italy and the Czech Republic is researching a cost-effective technology for face gear grinding.
A consortium led by Feanor, including partners from Italy and the Czech Republic is researching a cost-effective technology for face gear grinding Face gears have been known and studied for many years, but as they were used for low power and low speed, the requirement for a constant speed ratio was not very important
This article was originally published on Engineeringtalk on 8 May 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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With the advent of high power and speed requirements, face gears have been driven out by conventional bevel gears, which are easier to manufacture.
Face gears have important applications in helicopter transmission systems, because face gear couplings have proved to be effective with reduced lubrication, thus increasing the reliability of the aircraft They also tolerate poor alignment between the pinion and the rotor gear.
In case of damage of the gearbox, helicopters using transmission systems based on face gears exhibit a higher safety and survivability.
The target of the Facegear project is to study a cost-effective method for the manufacturing of face gears, thus increasing their application in the helicopter industry.
The objectives of the proposed EU project are: to produce calculation software for face gear geometry; to develop a cost-effective gear cutting technology for face gears; and to develop a measuring system for the geometry of face gears.
Face gears have a number of natural advantages, compared with bevel gears.
For example: the pinion is a normal spur gear which axial position has no influence on the meshing zone provided its face is adequate; assembly time is reduced because only the axial position of the face gears needs to be set; lapping is not necessary because all gears irrespective of their tooth numbers or shaft angles may be interchangeably meshed with the common pinion on which the particular generating hob geometry is based; there is no axial load on a pinion with straight spur teeth; the meshing is smoother due to oblique contact lines and high contact ratio; face gears provide high transmission ratios in one stage; cost effective manufacture on conventional CNC gear hobbing machines straddle mounted pinions, provided that the calculation is correct; zero backlash transmission for positioning or measuring machines can be easily obtained; and face gears have high-strength teeth and good contact geometry, which provides high torque capabilities.
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