The investigation of wear on three-dimensional printed spur gears

Gears are commonly used in every field of industry as power and motion transmission elements. According to the usage areas, they are manufactured from materials such as steel, aluminium, plastics, cast and bronze. There are different manufacturing methods according to material type. Plastic gears are preferred in textile, automotive and aviation industries where the supported load is low, and corrosion and lightness are considerably important. They work more quietly than metal gears. Plastic gears are manufactured by an injection moulding or hobbing method. The disadvantages of the plastic injection method are high cost of the injection moulds and strength losses in the moulded parts due to the internal clearance faults, whereas the disadvantage of the hobbing method is defects in tooth profiles due to operational faults. In this study, wear strengths of plastic spur gears manufactured via a three-dimensional printer with the fused deposition modelling technique as an alternative manufacturing method were experimentally examined. In the experimental studies, polylactic acid pinion gear manufactured with the three-dimensional printer was subjected to wear tests with St37-2 gear. Wear strengths of plastic spur gears were compared in wear tests performed with Forschungsstelle für Zahnrader und Getriebebau equipment under various loads and rotational speeds. Wear depths that occurred in plastic gears were examined via coordinate measuring machine equipment. As a result of the experimental studies, it is found that wear is increased with the increase of load affecting the gear, and wear is decreased with the increase of rotational speed. As a result of this study, it was shown that plastic spur gears manufactured with three-dimensional printers can be used in areas where lightness and corrosion resistance is important under low loads.