Design and Analysis of Spur Gear Using Composite Material

Spur gears are the simplest and widely used in power transmission. In recent years it is required to operate machines at varying load and speed. Gear teeth normally fail when load is increased above certain limit. Therefore, it is required to explore alternate materials for gear manufacturing. Composite materials provide adequate strength with weight reduction and they have emerged as a better alternative for replacing metallic gears. Composites provide much improved mechanical properties such as better strength to weight ratio, more hardness, and hence less chances of failure. So, this work is concerned with replacing metallic gear with composite material to improve performance of machine and to have longer working life. Efforts have also been carried out for modeling using 3D modelling software called SOLIDWORKS and finite element analysis of gears using ANSYS. Composite gears have been manufactured by stir casting, which is economical method. Composite gears offer improved properties over steel alloys and these can be used as better alternative for replacing metallic gears.