Gear scuffing: power dissipation and mass temperature

Experimental gear scuffing results were obtained in the FZG test rig for wide ranges of the applied torque, tangential speed, base oil viscosity and bath oil temperature, and for FZG type A and type C gears.A scuffing criterion for gears lubricated with base mineral oils was developed, proposing the existence of gear mass temperatures which are critical for each lubricant (viscosity grade).The scuffing criterion shows very good correlation with experimental results.The dynamic viscosity of the oils at those critical mass temperatures is constant that permits the determination of other critical temperatures for other gear mineral oils without need additional scuffing tests.