Simulative And Experimental Investigation Of The Tooth Flank Load Capacity Of Powder Metal Gears

To use powder metal gears in modern power transmissions, different manufacturing processes are carried out to optimize the gear load capacity. Surface densification and heat treatment improve the load capacity and lead to local material properties appropriate to the loads. To provide a local calculation approach for these gears and to identify load capacity potentials for the industry, this paper focuses on the simulative and experimental investigation of the tooth flank load capacity of powder metal gears.Therefore, a method for the tooth flank load capacity calculation considering local material properties is presented. Furthermore, tests on surface-densified, case-hardened powder metal gears are conducted to validate the calculation approach. As well, the experimental investigations on a Back-to-Back test rig provide results on the tooth flank load capacity of different powder metal gear variants, which are compared to results of a wrought, case-hardening steel.