Experimental Characterization of Bending Fatigue Strength in Gear Teeth

The effort described in this paper addresses a desire in the gear industry to increase power densities and reduce costs of geared transmissions. To achieve these objectives, new materials and manufacturing processes, utilized in the fabrication of gears, and being evaluated. In this effort, the first priority is to compare the performance of gears fabricated using current materials and processes. However, once that priority is satisfied, it rapidly transforms to requiring accurate design data to utilize these novel materials and processes. This paper describes the effort to address one aspect of this design data requirement.