Potenzial von freien Flankenmodifikationen für Beveloidverzahnungen

In recent years the beveloid gear, also known as conical involute gear, is shifting more and more into the spotlight. The beveloid gear has been an important part of marine transmissions for years and is nowadays used to transmit the torque of the output shaft of the gearbox onto the front axle in a four wheel drive vehicle. The small need of design space and the reduced amount of design parts necessary in comparison to conventional transfer gearboxes, distinguish the beveloid gear. The conjugate flank of beveloid gears promises the best operational behavior. However because of its geometry the conjugate flank cannot be manufactured with standard manufacturing processes. Standard modification such as crowning offer a possibility to enhance the operational behavior of involute beveloid gears but cannot reach the whole potential given by conjugated beveloid gears. Therefore, the objective of the following report is to investigate the potential of free flank modifications of beveloid gears regarding the operational behavior. After a brief overview on existing geometry optimization methods for beveloid gears, the method for free flank modifications by means of a weighted objective function is defined and applied to an example gear. The results of the investigation show that free flank modifications offer a high level of improvement of the operational behavior. The comparison with a non-modified gear, a gear with standard modifications and a gear with free flank modifications for three different load steps proves that free flank modifications offer a higher durability and lower noise excitation.