抄録
We investigated the effect of swelling of polyamide gear on the gear accuracy and noise generation. For the influence of swelling on the gear accuracy, we examined the changes in the tooth profile and tooth trace of test gear by water immersion test. Gear swelling caused large negative pressure angle errors on the tooth profiles of test gear and the error increased with the immersion time. Changes in the tooth profile were approximately similar in each tooth of the test gear. For the influence of swelling on the gear noise, we examined by comparing the noise of swelled gear and that of non-swelled gear using a gear tester. In this study, we attached a polyamide gear to the driven shaft and a steel gear to the driving shaft, and carried out gear tests under the conditions of tangential force F/b = 6.5, 13.0, 19.6 N/mm (the nominal load torque = 19.6, 39.2, 58.8 Nm). The change in tooth profile due to swelling influenced the noise generation, however the influence was limitative and swelling had no very influence on the gear noise generation except for the case operated under low load condition.
