Tolerance analysis of spur gears based on skin model shapes and a boundary element method

Tolerance analysis is an important approach for evaluating the accuracy and function of mechanical products. Research on tolerance analysis has mainly focused on the transfer and accumulation of geometric deviations during assembly, while the effects of contact behavior have not been considered in detail. Therefore, this paper presents a tolerance analysis approach to spur gears that takes into account the effects of contact behavior between mating tooth surfaces on transmission performance. Machining and assembly errors are represented based on the concept of skin model shapes. The contact behavior between mating tooth surfaces is calculated using the boundary element method (BEM) to perform tooth contact analysis (TCA). The proposed tolerance analysis approach is applied to a pair of spur gears as an example. The manner in which the transmission error, tooth contact pattern and contact pressure distribution are affected by machining and assembly errors is discussed. This research demonstrates the notable effects of contact behavior between mating tooth surfaces on transmission performance and provides a potential method for the tolerance analysis of other mechanisms.