Magnetorheological finishing process for improved performance of polymer gears

Fine finishing of polymer bevel gears (BGs) plays a key role in defining the functionality of many industrial components. Polymer BGs are highly utilized due to their properties such as high damping resistance and low weight. The polymer BG surface with a high-grade finish tends to upsurge the reliability, reduces wear, and improves the functional efficacy of the components. In the present work, a novel magnetorheological bevel gear finishing (MRBGF) process is utilized to finish the overall polyamide BG surface in minimum time. So, MRBGF process parameters are optimized utilizing the response surface methodology. The predicted optimum parameters are used to fine finish the polymer BGs. After experiments, the average surface roughness value of the overall polymer BG was reduced from 0.38 µm to 0.10 µm in 140 min finishing. Further, results reveal significant improvement in surface characteristics and an increase in the average microhardness of the BG tooth surface. In addition, gear run-out is reduced from DIN 8 to DIN 6 which demonstrates improvement in BG tooth accuracy. Thus, it signifies that the MRBGF process is feasible to improve the functional performance of the polymer BGs after fine finishing of all tooth surfaces with a common rotating mechanism of tool and gear.