Gear and Power Transmission Research Laboratory: Research

Current Consortium Projects

The following is a representative list of the current projects that are funded by the members of the GearLab Consortium. Each member has full access to the findings of these research projects including papers and theses.  

• Development of a spline load distribution model, validation, and prediction of root stresses
• Development of a planetary load distribution model
• Planetary gear train efficiency
• Development of advanced EHL models for gear contacts
• Effect of spacing errors on dynamic stress factors and loaded transmission error
• Development of a load distribution model for spiral bevel and hypoid gears
• A model to predict overall transmission error of a planetary gear set
• Enhancement of current WindowsLDP and RMC

Current Individually Sponsored Projects:

These projects are funded by a single company or a group of companies through an individual contract.  The findings of these research projects are kept limited to the sponsoring company and are not shared with the Consortium members unless they are disclosed by the sponsoring company. The following is the list of the recent and current individually funded research projects.  

• Pratt & Whitney Center of Excellence in Gearbox Technology,  Pratt & Whitney
• An Investigation of Drag Losses of Helical Gears, General Motors
• An Experimental Investigation of the Impact of Forced Lubrication Parameters on Gearbox Efficiency and Pitting Life, Eaton Corporation
• Measurement of Load Transmission Error of a Hypoid Pair with Misalignments, AAM
• Development of Planetary Gear Dynamics Analysis Modules in pRMC and PTA (Co-PI: Dr. D. Talbot), Hyundai Motor Company
• An Investigation of the Effect of Grind-Polishing Process on Gear Efficiency, General Motors
• Evaluation of Loaded Transmission Error and Root Stresses of Hypoid Gear Pairs Subject to Misalignments, General Motors
• Evaluation of Contact Fatigue Characteristics of Grind-Polished 4118M Spur Gears, Allison Transmission
   

Gleason Gear and Power Transmission Laboratories

The Gleason Gear and Power Transmission Laboratory consists of 6 high-bay rooms having 6000 square feet (about 550 square meters) of laboratory space with built in facilities such as isolated test beds and one computational research laboratory that houses the research team. The test facilities are arranged in four laboratories, dedicated to experimental investigation of different aspects of gearing.

Gear Dynamics Laboratory: houses a number of state-of-the-art test set-ups and machines to investigate the behavior of gear pairs and gear systems under dynamic operating conditions. It includes the Gear Dynamics Test Machine that is designed to measure transmission error, vibrations and root strains of spur and helical gears with or without shaft misalignments. Both encoder- and accelerometer-based transmission error measurement systems are incorporated with this test machine. Another test set-up housed in this laboratory is a planetary gear test machine to measure planet load sharing, efficiency and dynamic behavior of planetary gear sets under loaded conditions. Other test set-ups in the lab include a low-speed loaded dynamometer that is currently being used for planetary gear set and hypoid transmission error measurements as well as full-scale transmission dynamometer that is suitable for loaded dynamic tests of gearboxes, transmissions as well as spin tests of axles.

Gear Efficiency Laboratory: houses a number of test machines designed specifically to evaluate efficiency and durability aspects of gears, gear materials and lubricants. Two twin-disk test machines for contact fatigue, scoring and traction measurements and an efficiency test machine shown here with helical gear efficiency fixtures. This efficiency test machine is designed to evaluate loaded and unloaded power losses of gear pairs under high-speed (up to 10,000 rpm) and high-load conditions (up to 700 Nm).

Gear Fatigue Laboratory: houses test machines to evaluate fatigue lives of gears under both automotive and aerospace conditions.  Three standard FZG gear durability test machines for performing pitting, tooth bending fatigue and scoring tests are housed in this laboratory. Also included in this laboratory is a MTS load frame fixture to perform single-tooth bending fatigue tests.

Gear Metrology Laboratory: supports the experiments in other laboratories by providing systems for measurement of surface roughness and tooth profiles, and imaging the test surfaces. A Gleason-Goulder single-flank unloaded transmission error tester, a Gleason M&M Gear CMM,  a Taylor Hobson Tally-Surf surface roughness profiler and miscellaneous digital microscopes and data collection and analysis instrumentation are also included in this lab.

Gear Computation Room: for graduate student's office.