22FTM18. Unconventional Gear Profiles in Planetary Gearboxes

ABSTRACT

The efficiency of high ratio planetary gear trains (PGTs) is mainly constrained by the meshing efficiency of acting gears in each stage. Such gear wheels, predominantly with involute teeth profiles, work with a meshing efficiency of around 99%. Yet, the overall efficiency of the gearbox drops to even below 70% when gear ratios of a few hundred are exceeded. Unconventional gear profiles are capable of solving the efficiency issue in high ratio planetary gearboxes. A review of existing PGTs with unconventional profiles is discussed along with other possible gear profiles to increase efficiency. The existing unconventional gear profiles are found to have high transmission errors and are intolerant to manufacturing inaccuracies thereby requiring further research to improve them.

Authors: Anand Varadharajan, Pablo Lopez Garcia, Dirk Lefeber, Stein Crispel, Tom Verstraten, Bram Vanderborght

ISBN: 978-1-64353-138-0