Computer-aided design of bevel gear tooth surfaces

This paper presents a computer aided design procedure for generating bevel gears. The development is based on examining a perfectly plastic, cone- shaped gear blank rolling over a cutting tooth on a plane crown rack. The resulting impression on the plastic gear blank is the envelope of the cutting tooth. This impression and envelope thus form a conjugate tooth surface. Equations are presented for the locus of points on the tooth surface. The same procedures are then extended to simulate the generation of a spiral bevel gear. The corresponding governing equations are presented.