Abstract: Gears have a wide variety of applications. Gears generally fail when the working stress exceeds the maximum permissible stress. Contact stress analysis between two spur gear teeth was considered in different contact positions representing a pair of mating gears during rotation. These stresses are proportional to the amount of power transmitted while the design could offer favorable or adverse conditions for generation of the same. This paper intends identify the magnitude of the stresses for a given configuration of a gear transmitting power while trying to find ways for reducing weight of the gear. The philosophy for driving this work is the lightness of the gear for a given purpose while keeping intact its functionality. The process constraints for manufacturing the gear also need to be considered while recommending alternative/s. Ease of incorporating the new feature for weight reduction over the existing process of manufacturing and the magnitude of volume of mass (or weight) reduced could be considered as the key parameters for assessment for this work. This study will focus on the weight optimization of the gear, keeping the torque transmitting capacity intact, thus reducing cost of the gear. In this work, the gear will be modeled in modeling software Catia and analyzed in ANSYS. The results obtained from FEA will be validated by modifying the standard gear and then practically testing torque transmitted and stresses in the gear.

Keywords: Contact stress, FEA, ANSYS, Spur Gear