Analysis of the Dynamic Characteristics of Elliptical Gears *

To date, elliptical gear has been commonly used in automobile, automatic machinery, pumps, flow meters and printing presses for its particular non-uniform rotation. However, the dynamic characteristics of elliptical gears have not been clarified yet. In this study, The calculation as well as the experiment of two elliptical gears, which are a single elliptical gear and a double elliptical gear, is carried out to analyze the dynamic characteristics of elliptical gears. General factors including the torque, the rotation speed and the tooth root stress of the test gears are investigated. According to the analysis conducted in this study, the dynamic input torque variation of elliptical gear becomes larger along with the increase of operating gear rotation speed and the experimental one increases much faster than the calculated one over the Critical Rotation Speed of Tooth Separation (CRSTS) of elliptical gear. The experimental input rotation speed varies according to the variation of input torque, leading to the difference between the experimental output rotation speed and the desired one. The calculation results of the CRSTS of elliptical gears are almost equal to the experimental ones. The dynamic load variation ratios of elliptical gear at different angular position as well as their changing trends with operating gear rotation speed are quite different from each other. And the experimental dynamic load variation ratios of elliptical gear show difference from the calculated ones because of tooth separation and tooth impact. The agreement of the calculation and experimental results proves the validity of this study.