The Effect of Notches at the Tooth Root Fillet on the Endurance Strength of Gears

Abstract

Notches at the tooth root fillet can be caused by shaving or grinding. The influence of different notches at the root fillet on the endurance strength of case hardened spur gears was investigated in back-to-back tests and pulsator tests. Data of the test gears: MnCr and CrNi Steels, module 3 (8 DP) and module 8 (3 DP). Besides the a.m. tests photo elastic investigations were performed. On the basis of some characteristic parameters, it was possible, to find a calculation procedure, to determine the loss of endurance strength due to the effect of various kinds of notches. Moreover it was investigated to what extent the endurance strength of notched gears could be increased by regrinding or shot peening the root fillet. It is known that notches at the tooth root fillet can essentially reduce the endurance strength of gears. This is of special importance for case hardened gears. It is desirable that such notches should be avoided, but sometimes notches are produced by shaving or grinding due to inadequacy of tooling or non-uniform heat distortion. Therefore the influence of geometry and position of notches at the root fillet on the endurance of case hardened spur gears was investigated in back-to-back and pulsator tests. Additionally the extent the endurance strength of notched gears could be increased by regrinding or shot peening the root fillets was studied.