Hourglass worm gear

Abstract

The improved hourglass worm gear which has been produced by grinding a blank for the worm gear by rotating a grinding wheel about a grinding wheel shaft A while turning the grinding wheel shaft A about a tool shaft A3 which extends in parallel with a wheel shaft A2 perpendicular to a worm shaft A1 is characterized in that a cross-sectional shape of the grinding wheel taken in a plane inclusive of the grinding wheel shaft A exhibits a circular arc. Since the cross-sectional shape of the grinding wheel for successively grinding a series of gear tooth surfaces on the hourglass worm gear is contoured in the form of a circular arc, the hourglass worm gear assures that a radius r of the circular arc has an increased degree of freedom and an ideal contact pattern can be obtained by properly adjusting the radius r. A contour of each gear tooth shape having few variation of gear tooth engagement is determined by correctly adjusting the radius r of the circular arc as well as various conditions associated with correct generation of a series of gear tooth surfaces on the worm gear in order to assure the ideal contact pattern regardless of displacement of shafts as well as displacement of each gear tooth under a large magnitude of load.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.