A Method for Predicting Contact Strength and Life of Archimedes and Involute Worm Gears, Considering the Effect of Wear and Teeth Correction

A new method developed by the author is used to investigate the effect of wear of worm wheel teeth on variations in their curvature radius and that of teeth correction in Archimedes and involute worm gears on their contact strength, wear and life. The effect of teeth correction on these variables is determined, for both constant and changed contact conditions. It has been found that when a positive correction coefficient is applied, the maximum contact pressures and wheel teeth wear decrease while the gear life increases; when the correction coefficient is negative, the trend is opposite. On changing contact conditions after wear limit of the teeth, the contact pressures are considerably lower, the gear life is practically the same, and the wear of worm wheel teeth is slightly higher than that in the case of constant conditions. To accelerate calculations, the block-cumulative method developed by the author and not the specified step-by-cumulative method are used. The computational time is reduced proportionately to the size of the block of the number of interactions.