Contact Characteristics of Recess Action Worm Gear Drives With Double-Depth Teeth

Abstract

Based on the previously developed mathematical model of a series of recess action (RA) worm gear drive (i.e., semi RA, full RA, and standard proportional tooth types) with double-depth teeth, the tooth contact analysis (TCA) technique is utilized to investigate the kinematic error (KE), contact ratio (CR), average contact ratio (ACR), instantaneous contact teeth (ICT) under different assembly conditions. Besides, the bearing contact and contact ellipse are studied by applying the surface topology method. Three numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the influence of the assembly errors and design parameters of the RA worm gear drive on the KE, CR, ACR, ICT, and contact patterns.