Artifact Design and Measurement Error Analysis in the Evaluation of Lead Measurement Accuracy of Helical Gear Using Wedge Artifact

Abstract

The reduction in the vibration and noise of gears is an important issue in mechanical devices such as vehicles and wind turbines. The characteristics of the vibration and noise of gears are markedly affected by deviations of the tooth flank form of micrometer order; therefore, strict quality control of the tooth flank form is required. The accuracy of the lead measurement for a gear-measuring instrument is usually evaluated using a helicoid artifact. However, it is difficult to manufacture it with high accuracy because the helix is a complicated geometrical form. To solve this problem, a method of evaluating a gear-measuring instrument using a wedge artifact, which includes a highly precise plane surface, has been proposed. In this research, to put the wedge artifact into practice, a design method of the wedge artifact is developed. In addition, the effects of the measuring condition and the setting error of the wedge artifact on the measurement result are investigated. The uncertainty for the evaluation method using a wedge artifact is assessed by a measurement experiment and simulation.