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Topology optimization and additive manufacturing in producing lightweight and low vibration gear body

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Abstract

Reducing gear vibration as well as its weight is a challenging field latterly. This research deals with the manufacturing of a gear having cellular lattice body structure by using Selective Laser Melting (SLM) technology. A cellular lattice design defines a complex structure which typically cannot be fabricated by conventional manufacturing technologies. On the other hand, the SLM technology enables the production of such complex cellular lattice structures directly from their computer-aided designed (CAD) models. The cellular gear body structure was designed and optimized by employing topology optimization software ProTOp and fabricated by SLM using Ti-6Al-4V alloy. The problems faced by the researchers and the solution which enabled the manufacturing of this gear by SLM are described in this paper. To estimate the performance of the gear during operation, the sound pressure was measured and compared to the results obtained with the gear having a solid body. The experimental results show that the investigated cellular lattice structure of the gear body is well capable to reduce the mass and vibration of the gear.

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Funding

The authors want to thank the Erasmus Mundus JoinEU-SEE PENTA scholarship program, Slovenian Research Agency (research core funding No. P2-0063 and P2-0157), as well as CAESS company for the research support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Prishtina “Hasan Prishtina”, St. Agim Ramadani, Ndërtesa e Fakulteteve Teknike, 10000, Prishtina, Kosovo

    Riad Ramadani

  2. Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Maribor, Smetanova 17, 2000, Maribor, Slovenia

    Snehashis Pal, Marko Kegl, Jožef Predan, Igor Drstvenšek, Stanislav Pehan & Aleš Belšak

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  1. Riad Ramadani
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  2. Snehashis Pal
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  5. Igor Drstvenšek
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  6. Stanislav Pehan
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  7. Aleš Belšak
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Contributions

Riad Ramadani: conceptualization, methodology, visualization, and writing—original draft. Snehashis Pal: conceptualization, methodology, visualization, and writing—original draft. Marko Kegl: writing (review and editing) and funding acquisition. Jozef Predan: investigation. Igor Drstvensek: investigation, writing (review and editing), and funding acquisition. Stanislav Pehan: supervision, conceptualization, methodology, visualization, and writing—review and editing. Ales Belsak: supervision, conceptualization, methodology, visualization, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Riad Ramadani.

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Ramadani, R., Pal, S., Kegl, M. et al. Topology optimization and additive manufacturing in producing lightweight and low vibration gear body. Int J Adv Manuf Technol 113, 3389–3399 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-021-06841-w

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