Engineering Simulation Enables Fast Development of a Reliable Gearbox at Elecon Engineering

"Our association with Ansys has accelerated our knowledge and capabilities in gearbox design and enabled us to deliver an exceptional product for our clients."

— V.B.Senjaliya, Senior Manager – Design B / Elecon Engineering Company, Gear Division

Introduction

Gear mechanisms transmit rotation and torque between axes in a machine. The gear wheel is a part of the machine that has intrigued many engineers because numerous technological problems arise in a complete cycle as the gear rotates and meshes with its counterpart. To achieve high load-carrying capacity, reduce the weight of gear drives and increase strength of the gearbox, engineers carry out gear-tooth stress analysis and perform tooth modifications to optimize gear drive design.

Challenges

To develop a reliable product that meets market demand, gear tooth performance needs to be evaluated quickly, regardless of construction material and manufacturing processes. Performance parameters, such as tooth bending, surface distress and tooth deflection contribute to tooth gear failure.

Engineering Solution

Gear geometry, and especially the involute profile of the tooth, is the most important element in gear design. Elecon engineers constructed a 3D model of the gear and pinion while maintaining the optimized profile of teeth. They applied local high mesh refinement at the contact region. The team calculated loads on the mating gears that act along the pressure line and applied the loads in Ansys Mechanical. Engineers then performed transient analysis to simulate the frictional motion of the gears.

Benefits

• Obtained accurate results along with extensive, customized reports of loads, stresses, deformation and transmission (gearbox) errors.
• Identified potential failure modes early in the product development cycle.
• Predicted gear misalignment and its source and minimized misalignment across the load range.
• Investigated the full scope of conditions to understand the effects of design parameters on product durability and performance. This avoided excessive prototype testing.
• Employed a virtual testing environment throughout design lifecycle.
• Quickly designed reliable gears to meet customer demands.