THOERY OF

MECHANISMS AND
MACHINES
Module-09
Gears
Instructed by:

Anupam Saxena
Associate Professor
Department of Mechanical
Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology
Kanpur
anupams@iitk.ac.in
Prepared by:
FB 361
Abhishek Attal, Abhishek Sharma
Final Year Dual Degree Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur
attalab@iitk.ac.in abhishr@iitk.ac.in
NL-312, FB369

Gears (Higher Pair)

Type of Gears
Nomenclature
Gear Construction
Involute Profile
Gear Trains
Examples, problems and questions

Types of Gears
According to the position of axes of the shafts
Parallel
Spur
Helical
Rack and Pinion

Intersecting
Bevel Gear

Non intersecting
Worm and worm wheel

Spur Gears

Used in transmitting torque between parallel shafts

Simplest type
Teeth are cut parallel to shaft axis
Easy to manufacture
If one of the gears has infinite diameter,

Rack and pinion arrangement

Helical Gear
Used in transmitting torque between parallel shafts
Teeth are cut at an angle with the shaft axis
Helical gears can be meshed in parallelorcrossedorientations.
The angled teeth engage more gradually than spur gear teeth,

causing them to run more smoothly and quietly

Double Helical gear

Bevel Gears
Used to transmit rotary motion between intersecting shafts
Tooth-bearing faces of the gears are conically shaped
Bevel gears are most often mounted on shafts that are

90 degrees apart, but can be designed to work at other

angles as well.
The pitch surface of bevel gears is acone

Worm and Worm Gear

Used for high Gear ratios

Direction of transmission (input shaft vs output shaft)

is not reversible when using large reduction ratios

Used in wiper motors

Fundamental Law of Gearing

The condition to maintain a constant angular velocity
ratio between two gears is that the common normal at
the point of contact should meet the line joining the
centers at a fixed point.

Terminology (Spur?)
Pinion and wheel: small pinion, large wheel
Pitch Curve: theoretical curve along which gear rolls (without
slipping)
Circular Pitch: distance measured along
the pitch circle from one point of tooth to
the corresponding point in adjacent tooth
Diametral Pitch: no. of teeth per unit
length of the PCD
Module: inverse of Diametral pitch
Addendum: radial distance b/w PC and top
land
Dedendum: radial distance b/w PC and bottom land
Clearance: amount by which dedendum of gear
exceeds the addendum of the mating gear

Equations

Involute Profile
Curve traced by a point on a string unwrapping
from a cylinder is involute profile

Pressure Angle
Common normal to the mating tooth curves at
the point of contact makes a constant angle with
the common tangent to the pitch circles passing
through the pitch point. This angle is called
pressure angle.

Primary Gear Characteristics

Pressure angle/ tooth profile
Face Width
Gear ratio or number of teeth on both gears
Centre to centre distance
Module

Construction