The influence of manufacturing method on the running-in of gears

Striving for higher gear transmission efficiency by using a low-viscosity transmission lubricant affects the lubricant film thickness. To keep the K-ratio (the ratio between the film thickness and the surface roughness) intact, more effort must be put on the surface topography. This paper presents a study of how running-in affects the dry elastic contact area ratio in spur gears using real surface topographies from three common manufacturing methods (green-shaving, honing, and grinding). The test gears were manufactured in case-hardened steel, similar to 20MnCrS5. Surface topography measurements were used as input to a contact analysis boundary element software program. An important hypothesis used in this work is that the dry elastic contact area ratio, i.e. the ratio between real and nominal contact area, can be used as a measure of the contact conditions in gears. It is concluded that running-in differs significantly for the studied manufacturing methods and that the dry elastic contact area ratio gives a consistent description of these changes. The shaved gears have the highest dry elastic contact area ratio after running in, where the ground gears have the lowest dry elastic contact area ratio. The increase in dry elastic contact area ratio is about 30 per cent for the shaved gears, 12 per cent for the honed gears and less than 5 per cent for the ground gears. Extreme value parameters, such as R-p and R-z, showed relatively good correlation to dry elastic contact area ratio. However no genuine correlation could be found between dry elastic contact area ratio and two-dimensional (2D) surface roughness parameters. Furthermore, traditional gear metrology form parameters do not serve as a good measure on the changes occurring during the running-in.