Gear

Abstract

A gear includes a gear body which includes a rim integral with a plurality of teeth at an outer peripheral surface thereof, and a boss disposed concentrically inside the rim. The gear further includes at least fitting section which is formed from a material having a low hardness and a low flexural strength as compared with a material for forming the gear body, and which is provided between the rim and the boss, so that the gear with a rotational-power transmitting member fitted into the fitting portion is rotated, whereby the rotational power of the gear body is transmitted to the rotational-power transmitting member, while elastically deforming the fitting section to absorb a predetermined amount of a shock produced with the rotation of the gear body. In such gear, the gear body and the fitting section are formed integrally with each other by a two-color molding process. Thus, it is unnecessary to produce a buffering member made of a rubber separately from the gear body and to amount the buffering member to the gear body. Therefore, it is possible to decrease the number of parts and the number of producing steps to reduce the producing cost. In addition, the fitting section cannot be separated from the gear body, leading to an enhanced quality of a gear product.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.