NUMERICAL MODEL FOR WORM GEAR PAIR INSPECTION BASED ON 3D SCANNED DATA

Gear inspection is an important aspect for evaluating gear geometry and ensuring that specified dimensional requirements are met. It is commonly carried out via tactile measurement methods which are characterized by relatively slow data acquisition and inability to provide three-dimensional data of the entire inspected object. In this paper, an alternative method based on three-dimensional optical scanning is employed for the inspection of a worm gear pair. Apart from assessing most common errors such as pitch deviations and runout, a nonlinear quasi-static finite element analysis based on worm gear pair scan is developed to estimate the transmission error. Furthermore, transmission error and initial worm wheel contact pattern are evaluated under running-in load and various assembly errors which resemble realistic working conditions. Depending upon the specific assembly error, transmission error can be either increased or decreased. Variation of initial contact patterns between observed worm wheel tooth flanks can vary up to 50 %. The results suggest that geometrical deviations have a considerable impact on initial contact patterns.