EFFECTS OF TORQUE AND SPEED ON THE WEAR BEHAVIORS OF STEEL AND POLYOXYMETHYLENE PLASTIC SPUR AND HELICAL GEARS

Özet

Wear resistances of steel and plastic spur and helical gears under the certain loads (torques) and rotational speeds were investigated in this study. Steel and plastic gears were manufactured using injection molding and machining processes, respectively. The weight and tooth thickness of the steel and PolyOxyMethylene (POM) gears were equal to each other, and the sizes of the gears were determined by the modification of the module and the diameters of the gears. The influences of torque (5, 10 and 15 Nm) and rotational speed (50, 100 and 150 rpm) on the wear resistance of the gears were studied using the gear-on-gear wear testing method. The weight loss of all steel and plastic spur and helical gears increased due to wear as the torque and speed increased. The wear resistance of steel and POM helical gears was higher than that of steel and POM helical gears. Although the wear resistance of steel gears was better than that of POM gears, their values were close to each other. The results showed that POM helical gears can be preferred over steel gears in some applications because of the advantages of plastic gears, such as low cost, no lubrication requirements, and high corrosion resistance.