Durability improvement method for plastic spur gears

An experimental investigation of power-transmission plastic spur gears was performed by inspecting both the characteristics of wear and durability, and a durability improvement method is proposed that either drills an internal hole or inserts a steel-pin in the internal hole of the gear tooth, and this proposed method was verified. In the case of acetal gears, the amount of wear was observed to increase with the development of plastic deformation, and an increase in tooth stiffness occurred due to the brittle material property of acetal. On the other hand, in the case of nylon gears, the proposed method was shown to reduce the tooth temperature compared to the original gear, thus reducing the amount of wear and prolonging service life. Hence, the proposed method was proven to be practically applicable to plastic gears made from soft polymers that show visco-elastic properties such as nylon. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.