Relationship between Tooth Surface Roughness and Wear of Spur Gears

Abstract

In this study, spur gear driving tests were conducted with the ultimate goal of developing a calculation method for predicting tooth flank wear. In order to determine how the initial roughness of the tooth surface affects the wear of the tooth surface, three types of test gears were manufactured and subjected to wear tests in which only the tooth surface roughness was different and other parameters, such as surface hardness, were kept as identical as possible. The tooth profile of each test gear was measured using a gear measuring machine, and the amount of change from before the experiment was calculated as the amount of wear. This paper reports the results and discusses how tooth surface roughness affects the amount of wear on the tooth surface.