Gear Tooth Protrusions for Automated Assembly Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing power transmission gear units face challenges in efficiently meshing gears with parallel rotation axes, leading to decreased productivity due to inconsistent assembly and potential machine errors during automatic assembly, as the timing of tooth engagement can vary significantly based on gear type and arrangement.
Innovation Solution
A power transmission gear unit is designed with a processed portion on the end surface of one gear's tooth, reducing the flat portion's dimension to facilitate easier meshing by allowing the tooth of the other gear to ride within this modified area, enabling cancellation of riding states with minimal relative movement and reducing friction through point-contact or protrusions, thus ensuring consistent assembly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Extent of automation
If gears are accommodated in the housing by an automatic assembly machine with vibration to enable meshing, then the assembly can be automated, but the assembly time varies significantly and causes machine errors and reduced productivity
Solution Approach 1:
The tooth portions of the gears are designed with preliminary features (protrusions or recesses) that enable automatic alignment and meshing. This preliminary structural arrangement allows the gears to engage correctly without requiring extended vibration periods, thereby maintaining automation while significantly reducing assembly time and preventing machine errors.
2Reliability
If vibration is applied for a longer period to ensure gear meshing, then the meshing reliability improves, but the assembly time increases and productivity decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The gear design incorporates self-aligning features where protrusions on one gear automatically fit into recesses on the meshing gear. This self-service mechanism ensures reliable meshing through the natural geometry of the components themselves, eliminating the need for prolonged vibration and reducing assembly time while maintaining high reliability.
3Reliability
If the tooth portions are designed to overlap in the radial direction with a processed portion, then the meshing becomes more reliable, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of complex overall gear redesign, the invention applies localized modifications to specific tooth portions. Protrusions or recesses are added only to the relevant tooth surfaces that require precise meshing, while the rest of the gear structure remains conventional. This local quality approach maintains manufacturing simplicity while achieving reliable meshing.
Data Source
AI summary
Hemispherical protrusions are protrudingly provided in end surfaces of a rotor gear and a tooth portion of a small gear having the smaller number of gear teeth between the rotor gear and a large gear of an intermediate gear, and between the small gear of the intermediate gear and an output gear, which are meshed with each other in a transmission gear train. Thus, in a case where the large gear rides on the rotor gear or the small gear rides on the output gear when the intermediate gear is accommodated in a housing after the rotor gear and the output gear are accommodated, it is possible to cancel the riding state thereof only by applying a slight vibration to the housing.