Face gearing with conical involute pinion
AssigneeMcDonnell Douglas Corporation
InventorJie Tan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention is directed to a unique gear set including a conical involute pinion and a mating face gear. The mating face gear has an axis whose location and orientation is usually configured, as intersecting with or slightly offset from the pinion axis. The pinion teeth are formed as involute helicoids generated from a base cylinder. The mating face gear teeth are defined by the shape of the mating conical pinion teeth surface at that time when the two mating gears are specifically positioned so as to perform synchronous rotations about their respective axes of rotation. This arrangement allows the gears to mesh and transmit high torque at high speeds through an angle as required in helicopter transmissions and the like.
Claims12
A gear set capable of meshing to transmit high torque at high speed through an angle, comprising:
- a conical involute pinion gear having a plurality of pinion teeth of similar shape to each other, with each pinion tooth having a pair of spaced-apart flank surfaces each formed as an involute helicoid;
- a mating face gear having a plurality of gear teeth of similar shape to each other, with each gear tooth having a pair of spaced-apart flank surfaces wherein the shape of the flank surfaces of the gear teeth are directly defined by the mating conical involute pinion tooth surfaces at the time when the two mating gear members are specifically positioned relative to one another so as to perform synchronous rotations about their respective axes of rotation, with the pinion gear having a taper angle relative to the pinion axis of rotation that is less than a taper angle of the face gear relative to the gear axis of rotation, whereby the flank surfaces of the face gear teeth contact the corresponding flank surfaces of the mating pinion gear along an instantaneous line of contact at every instant of the meshing cycle and follow true conjugate action during the whole meshing cycle.
An high torque and high speed helicopter transmission gear arrangement, comprising:
- an arrangement of pinion gears, with each pinion gear formed as a conical involute pinion having a plurality of teeth of similar shape t each other, with each pinion tooth having opposite flank surfaces formed as an involute helicoid;
- at least two face gears positioned on opposite sides of the arrangement of conical involute pinion gears, with each face gear having a plurality of teeth of similar shape to each other, so that each face gear tooth has opposite flank surfaces defined by mating conical involute pinion tooth surfaces at the time when the mating conical involute pinion and face gear members are specifically positioned relative to one another so as to perform synchronous rotations about their respective axes of rotation, with the pinion having a taper angle relative to the pinion axes of rotation that is less than a taper angle of the face gear relative to the gear axis of rotation;
- wherein the flank surfaces of the face gear teeth contact the corresponding flank surfaces of the mating conical involute pinion along an instantaneous line of contact at every instant of the meshing cycle, and
- wherein the conical involute pinion gears and face gears are further disposed relative to one another in such a manner as to split power between the pinion gears.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.