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Thermal and durability characterization of polyacetal and polyamide gear pairs

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Abstract

Polymer gears have become more established and consequently implemented in various drive train applications. To perform a precise calculation of power train application, a completed database for polymer materials must be known. In the field of polymer database, there is a lack of fatigue and thermal data which are not accessible from suppliers. In the present study, durability testing of POM/PA combination is observed. In the research, different poliamide gears (also reinforced with glass fibers) were characterized to obtain meshing temperatures and fatigue data — Woehler lines. Reinforced polyamide gears show better durability performance at higher loading — torque conditions with lower temperature dispersion in contact compared to generic polyamide when melting failure occurs. When excessive fatigue is observed, resulting in more than 1 million cycles, PA gears have longer lifetime compared to composite gears.

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Abbreviations

z :

Number of teeth

b :

Width of gear

m :

Modulus

α p :

Pressure angle

d :

Reference diameter

d f :

Root diameter

x :

Profile shift coefficient

n 12 :

Rotational velocity

T :

Average spot temperature in meshing zone

M :

Torque

f :

Frequency

U :

Voltage

P :

Power

Φ v :

Frequency

R a :

Arithmetical mean roughness

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Republic of Slovenia and the European Union under the European Regional Development Fund (advanced materials, methodologies, and technologies for the development of lightweight power transmission components for drives technology), No. C3330-18-952014.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Podkrižnik d.o.o., Ljubno ob Savinji, Loke 33, Slovenia

    Matija Hriberšek & Simon Kulovec

Authors
  1. Matija Hriberšek
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  2. Simon Kulovec
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matija Hriberšek.

Additional information

Matija Hribersek is a Researcher at Podkrižnik d.o.o. He finished study at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at University of Ljubljana. He obtained the Ph.D. in Mechanical Sciences at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at University of Ljubljana in the field of thermal conditions during cryogenic machining. He works on polymer gears used in power train applications. He is an expert in the field of thermal heat state mechanisms, tribological, wear and durability characteristics of polymer materials.

Simon Kulovec is the Director of the R&D Department at the company Podkrižnik. He received the Ph.D. in Mechanical Sciences at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at University of Ljubljana. He is an expert in the field of exchange systems and free form construction, gear systems and design, FEM and CFD analysis, modelling, computer aided design, CAD programming and programming languages.

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Hriberšek, M., Kulovec, S. Thermal and durability characterization of polyacetal and polyamide gear pairs. J Mech Sci Technol 35, 3389–3394 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0712-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-021-0712-z

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