DESIGN OF GEAR BOXES

GEAR BOX DEFINITION:

Ø Gear box which contains a number of gears arranged in a specific format and by
changing the positions of some gears with respect to other gears, many speeds can
be received.
Ø Another important applications of gear box is in automobiles where low speed is
required at starting and stopping and high speed during running.

FUNCTION OF GEAR BOX:

Ø A gear box is containing many gears of different numbers of teeth, arranged in

different shafts which may be solid shafts or splined shafts.
Ø In the solid shafts, the gears are fitted in such a way that they can rotate only and
cannot move in the axial directions and also some gap is provided in between two
gears.
Ø whereas in splined shafts two or three gears, which are already meshed together to
act as a single unit, are fitted in such a way that they can rotate and also move in
the axial directions.

PROGRESSION RATIO:

Ø We know that by using gear-box, we can obtain a number of different speeds

from a single motor speed.
Ø These speeds can be decided by employing a constant, known as 'Progression
ratio which is the ratio of one speed to the next lower speed.
Ø Let N1 be the minimum speed, N2, N3, N4 be the successive higher speeds, and
N5 the maximum speed, so that the total number of speeds may be 5, then
SPEED DIAGRAM :

Ø Suppose we require 'r' number , 'spindle-speeds' 'form a single motor-speed'

practically it is at possible to attach 'r' pairs of 'gears in the above two shafts to
obtain the above 'r' speeds.
Ø The maximum number of speeds that can be obtained between any two shafts is 3,
because the maximum number of gears to be meshed together may be three as
shown in figure.
Ø Hence, if number of speeds is more than three, then, we should employ some
intermittent shafts between the motor shaft and spindle shaft as shown in figure.
Ø And the required number of speeds may be obtained in multiplies of 2 and 3.

Ø Consider the total number of spindle speeds required is 18 from the single
motor speed.
Ø This 18 speeds may be splitted as 18 = 1 x 2 x 3 x 3. In order to obtain
these 18 speeds, we require two intermittent shafts apart from two main
shafts such as motor shaft and spindle shaft.
Ø That is, the total number of shafts required is four. Among these four
shafts, the motor shaft is, rotating with only one speed.
Ø The first intermittent shaft is rotating with two (Ix 2 = 2) speeds.
Ø The second intermittent shaft is rotating with six (1 x 2 x 3 = 6) speeds, the
spindle shaft is rotating with eighteen (1 x 2 x 3 x 3 = 18) speeds as shown
in figure.
The diagram shown in figure which represents the different number of speeds in different
shafts is called as 'Speed-diagram or Ray diagram or Structural diagram'.

KINEMATIC ARRANGEMENT:

Ø The kinematic arrangement of gears is nothing but the actual arrangement of gears
in various shafts for obtaining the required 'r' speeds.
Ø The kinematic arrangement for 18 output speeds as shown in figure is described
as follows.
DESIGN PROCEDURE:

Ø The gears operated in a gear box may be mostly the spur-gear type or helical
gear type.
Ø Combined form of spur with bevel or helical with bevel are very rarely used
especially for specific functions such as to transmit power in an angular directions
in different speeds.
Ø Gear box with a number of worm-gear drive is not usually made. Among all the
above types of gears, the use of spur-gears is immensive.
1. From the given problem, decide the amount of power to be transmitted, motor speed,
number of speeds required, maximum and minimum speeds, available space etc. For
compact drive stronger materials such as alloy steels may be selected, usually all the
gears may be made of same material
2.

3. Draw the speed diagram for which the number of shafts are selected based on the gear
ratio which should not be more than four in a single step. The speeds of intermediate
shafts should be marked on them.
4. Draw the kinematic arrangement according to speed diagram.
5. Compute the minimum centre distance between the shafts based on surface
compressive stress considering the worst condition (i.e.., maximum power and lowest
speed condition). Usually, the determination of centre distance should be started from
the spindle shaft, and then the design is proceeded to other shafts successively and
finally to the motor shaft.
6. Calculate the minimum module based on design bending stress and standardise it using
the table(PSG 8.2).
7. Using the same module, find out the number of teeth of all the gears for that centre
distance. It should be remembered that the total number of teeth of engaging pair is
equal for the same module and same distance. For easy calculation, refer the tables
(PSG 8.6 to 8.12).
8. Using similar procedure, find out the teeth of other gears fitted in other shafts.
9. Calculate the actual spindle speeds based on the designed number of teeth
of all gears and their variation from the required speeds are tabulated for comparison.
10. Design the other elements of gear-box such as shafts, keys, bearings and gear
changing levers etc and then draw arrangement of gear box neatly.
Questions:

1) What is the function of spacers in a gear-box?

2) What purpose does the housing of gear-box serve?
3) What is a speed diagram?
4) For what purpose we are using gear-box?
5) Name the types of speed reducers.
6) What does the ray-diagram of gear-box indicate?
7) What is step ratio?
8) What are the main components of a gear-box?
9) Design a gear box to give 9 output speeds ranging from 75 to 710 rpm. The input
shaft speed is 3000 rpm.
10) Design a 12 speed gear box for the head-stock of a machine tool, speed ranging
from about 30 to 1000 rpm. Machine-tool motor is a 5 hp. 1440 rpm. unit.
11) Design a six speed gear box for the following details.
Motor power 5 kW at 1440 rpm.
Maximum speed 1440 rpm.
Minimum speed 460 rpm