Up to this point the discussion has implied that there is no backlash. If the gears are of standard tooth proportion design and operate on standard center distance they would function ideally with neither backlash nor jamming.
Backlash is provided for a variety of reasons and cannot be designated without consideration of machining conditions. The general purpose of backlash is to prevent gears from jamming by making contact on both sides of their teeth simultaneously. A small amount of backlash is also desirable to provide for lubricant space and differential expansion between the gear components and the housing. Any error in machining which tends to increase the possibility of jamming makes it necessary to increase the amount of backlash by at least as much as the possible cumulative errors. Consequently, the smaller the amount of backlash, the more accurate must be the machining of the gears. Runout of both gears, errors in profile, pitch, tooth thickness, helix angle and center distance Ä all are factors to consider in the specification of the amount of backlash. On the other hand, excessive backlash is objectionable, particularly if the drive is frequently reversing or if there is an overrunning load. The amount of backlash must not be excessive for the requirements of the job, but it should be sufficient so that machining costs are not higher than necessary.
| In order to obtain the amount of backlash desired, it is necessary to decrease tooth thickness. See Figure 14-1. This decrease must almost always be greater than the desired backlash because of the errors in manufacturing and assembling. Since the amount of the decrease in tooth thickness depends upon the accuracy of machining, the allowance for a specified backlash will vary according to the manufacturing conditions. |  |
It is customary to make half of the allowance for backlash on the tooth thickness of each gear of a pair, although there are exceptions. For example, on pinions having very low numbers of teeth, it is desirable to provide all of the allowance on the mating gear so as not to weaken the pinion teeth.
In the following, we give the fundamental equations for the determination of backlash in a single gear mesh. For the determination of backlash in gear trains, it is necessary to sum the backlash of each mated gear pair. However, to obtain the total backlash for a series of meshes, it is necessary to take into account the gear ratio of each mesh relative to a chosen reference shaft in the gear train. For details, see Reference 10 at the end of the technical section.
14.1 Definition Of Backlash
Backlash is defined in Figure 14-2(a) as the excess thickness of tooth space over the thickness of the mating tooth. There are two basic ways in which backlash arises: tooth thickness is below the zero backlash value; and the operating center distance is greater than the zero backlash value.
