Influence of assembly errors on meshing characteristics of spiral bevel gear and compensation approach of misalignment

Based on the spatial position relationship of spiral bevel gear, mathematical model and mesh model applied with finite element analysis (FEA) approach has been established. The influence of axial position errors of pinion and wheel, offset error, and shaft angle error on the meshing characteristics has been investigated. A method has been proposed to compensate the gear assembly errors by the axial displacement of the pinion and wheel, and the correctness of this method verified by numerical examples. The performed results indicate that the existence of assembly errors can cause contact pattern on the tooth surface to deviate from its design position, resulting in poor meshing quality and having a certain impact on transmission error (TE) and peak-to-peak transmission error (PPTE). The pinion and wheel’s axial positioning errors can be offset by each other, whereas the offset error and shaft angle error can be mitigated by the interplay between the axial positioning of the pinion and wheel. By compensating for assembly errors with axial displacement, the position of the contact pattern can be precisely controlled, and TE will not significant changes.