21.1 INTRODUCTION

Spiral bevel gears have found broad application in helicopter and truck transmissions and reducers for transformation of rotation and torque between intersected axes. Design and stress analysis of such gear drives has been a topic of research by many scientists including the authors of this book [Krenzer, 1981; Handschuh & Litvin, 1991; Stadtfeld, 1993, 1995; Zhang et al., 1995; Gosselin et al., 1996; Litvin et al., 1998a, 2002a; Argyris et al., 2002; Fuentes et al., 2002]. Reduction of noise and stabilization of bearing contact of misaligned spiral bevel gear drives are still very challenging topics of research although manufacturing companies [Gleason Works (USA), Klingelnberg Oerlikon (Germany Switzerland)] have developed skilled methods and outstanding equipment for manufacture of such gear drives.

The conditions of meshing and contact of spiral bevel gears depend substantially on the machine-tool settings applied. Such settings are not standardized but have to be determined for each case of design, depending on the parameters of the gears and generating tools, to guarantee the required quality of the gear drives. This chapter covers an integrated approach for the design and stress analysis of spiral bevel gears that has been developed by the authors of the book and their associates. The approach provides the solution to the following problems:

1. Determination of machine-tool settings for generation of low-noise stable bearing contact spiral bevel gear drives.

2. Computerized analysis of meshing and contact of gear tooth surfaces.

3. Investigation of formation of bearing contact and...