Design Method of Double Ball Artifact for Use in Evaluating the Accuracy of a Gear-Measuring Instrument

Abstract

Vibration of gears is a serious problem in mechanical devices. The characteristics of these vibrations are strongly affected by tooth flank form deviation of micrometer or submicrometer order. The quality of manufactured gears is controlled by a gear-measuring instrument. The accuracy of the profile measurement by such an instrument is evaluated using a master gear or an involute artifact. However, it is difficult to manufacture gears with high accuracy because the involute is a complicated geometrical form. To solve this problem, the double ball artifact (DBA) has been proposed as a means to evaluate the profile measurement accuracy. The application of the DBA requires a DBA design method so that the DBA can be applied to a wide variety of gear dimensions in the industrial field and can realize high-precision evaluation. In the present study, a design method is proposed for the DBA, and the dimensions, tolerance, and material of the DBA are determined. A DBA is designed and manufactured according to the proposed design method and the effectiveness of the manufactured DBA is verified experimentally using a gear-measuring instrument.