Investigation of Metal Stiffeners in FRP Composite Gears for Increasing Tooth Bending Strength

Gears are an integral and necessary component in our everyday lives. Most of the work performed in plastic and metal but very few works available in combine effect of plastic and metal gears. The main problem while referring plastic gear is the bending strength and in case of metal gear is cost. Hence, the work is performed on metal plastic composite gear to get benefit of both. Here use the combination of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) and metal. After considering all the merits and demerits of plastic gear use of new gear technology that is metal plastic composite gear is beneficial. The problem under consideration is to enhance further the tooth bending strength of fibre reinforced plastic gears by intrusion of metal stiffeners inside the geometry of each tooth. This includes studying effect of various cross sections for stiffener geometry and various materials used for remaining part of gear, on tooth bending strength with the help of FEA results. The FEA result obtained for optimal combination gear is then compare with only plastic (FRP) gear and observed that tooth bending strength increases. The outputs are measured in the form of contact force, section force and torque carrying capacity. Ls-Dyna and HYPERMESH software are used for FEA study.