machine design, Vol.4(2012) No.

3, ISSN 1821-1259

pp. 167-170
Research paper

GEAR COUPLINGS AND SPINDLES WITH EQUAL IN STRENGTH TEETH

Sergey LAGUTIN1, * - Boris UTKIN1 - Alexey KLOCHKOV1

JS Co EZTM, Electrostal, Russia

Received (17.08.2012); Revised (02.09.2012); Accepted (18.09.2012)

Abstract: To improve the load carrying capacity of gear couplings the cage and hub teeth at their bases have to be
equal in bending strength. It can be achieved by two methods: (i) tangential modification of the basic rack with the use
of special gear-cutting tool and (ii) addendum modification with the hub teeth cutting by standard worm hobs and the
case teeth processing by gear-cutting shapers due proposed method of their outer cone grinding.
To improve the teeth wear resistance it is also proposed to perform a longitudinal line of the hub teeth on curves of so
named "natural modification", which tooth takes in the wear process.
Improvement of the gear couplings geometry enhances its load carrying capacity by 2540%. Further increase in load
capacity and wear resistance can be achieved by induction-hardening the tooth surfaces. All of the proposed processing
methods and calculating algorithms are verified by EZTM manufacturing practice
Key words: gear couplings, tangential and addendum modification.

1. INTRODUCTION
Gear couplings are used to connect shafts and compensate
offsets between them. They consist of two shaft hubs with
external teeth, which are connected by a cage (usually of
two pieces) containing internal teeth (Fig. 1).

Fig.1. Gear coupling

Their high torque capacity combines with low inertia of
the drive system. Therefore they are widely used in
engineering for high speed applications especially when
the connecting shafts work with the distortion angle that
are up to 1.5 [1].
Gear spindles are gear couplings with intermediate shaft
and are used for large offsets of the connecting shafts, for
example, to transmit rotation from gearbox to the working
stand of rolling mill [2].

EZTM JSC (The Electrostal Heavy Engineering Works)

is one of the main Russian producers of gear couplings
and spindles for heavy industry.
The normalized gear couplings series includes 19 sizes.
Gear couplings sizes 1-8 are designed to transmit torques
from 1 to 63 kNm. They are manufactured as commercial
products in a specialized section. Technical specifications
for their manufacture are regulated by Russian GOST R
50895-96, which replaced the preceding GOST 5006-83
and GOST 5006-55. EZTM JSC was actively involved in
developing of all these standards.
The large gear couplings sizes 9-19 with a load capacity
up to 1250kNm, as well gear spindles are manufactured
under individual orders. They are used mainly in the
drives of rolling mills and other machines within the
nomenclature of the company.
The reliability of connecting devices significantly affects
the reliability of the machine as a whole. In this regard,
design and research department EZTM pay constant
attention to improving their design. A number of original
technical solutions are protected by inventor's certificates
[3]. The research work was carried out in collaboration
with the IMASH of RAS and other research institutions.
A fundamental contribution to the methods of design and
analysis of gear coupling devices was made by Prof. E.L.
Airapetov and his co-workers [1, 2].
When designing the gear connections such geometrical
parameters, materials and methods of hardening are laid,
so that at the given external loading conditions - torque,
speed and distortion angles to ensure reliability of their
work on the criteria of the failure of teeth and the contact
destruction of their active surfaces. However, providing
these conditions does not rule out a gradual wear and a
failure of gear connections, when their teeth reach a
critical thickness. Research work to increase the service
life of gear connections are constantly going on.

*Correspondence Authors Address: JS Co EZTM, Electrostal, Krasnaya 19, 144000, Russia, [email protected]

Sergey Lagutin, Boris Utkin, Alexey Klochkov: Gear Couplings and Spindles With Equal in Strength Teeth;
Machine Design, Vol.4(2012) No.3, ISSN 1821-1259; pp. 167-170

2. CONVENTIAL DESIGN OF GEARING

Gear coupling can be regarded as involute spur gear with
internal teeth and the gear ratio u = 1. Tooth number z and
module m are equal for both elements. The traditional
coupling main dimensions are shown in Fig. 2.

of hub teeth in a section tangential to the pitch cylinder is

performed on a curve of constant curvature, which is
close to the arc of a circle with a radius R.

Fig.2. Basic parameters of gear coupling.

External teeth of the hub are cut by a worm hob with the
standard parameters of the basic rack: pressure angle
=20, an addendum ha1=m, a dedendum hf1=1.25m.
The cage teeth are performed with a short addendum
ha2 = 0.8 m. On the one hand, it prevents the damage of
interference between cage teeth in machine meshing with
a gear-cutting shaper. On the other hand, an increased
radial clearance equal to Cr 0.45 m is required in the
engagement to compensate for misalignment of the
connection parts in the assembly.
Pitch diameter of both parts is equal d = m z.
The hub is centering in the cage on the tops of the teeth.
In this case nominal values of the hub outside diameter
and cage root diameter are equal to each other.
da1= df2= m (z+2)

(1)

Nominal values of the pitch thickness of the hub and the

cage teeth were taken equal to:
S1= S2= m/2

(2)

To compensate the misalignment of the shaft ends and the

pitch errors it is necessary to provide the side backlash
between the teeth, that is measured on common normal to
the involute profile. According to EZTM norms, in the
couplings with barrel-shaped teeth it is set to Cn = 0.12 m
and is provided mandatory thinning of cage teeth on the
value n2 = 0.08 m, and the hub teeth on n1 = 0.04 m.

3. TOOTH LONGITUDINAL MODIFICATION

To prevent the damage of edge contact on the face of the
hub its external teeth should be performed with a
longitudinal modification or barrel-shaped.
A conventional shape of longitudinal modification of the
teeth is shown in Fig. 3. The outer surface of the hub teeth
is performed as the sphere of radius Ra=da1/2. Side profile
168

Fig.3. Hub with barrel-shaped teeth.

Such a modification ensures that the hub teeth are cut
with a variable shift of the base rack along the tooth
length due to the longitudinal feed of worm hob in a curve
of radius Rc related with R by
Rc = R tan ,

(3)

The value of Rc has to take in account the pitch diameter,

module, crown width and the designed angle of axes
distortion. According to the norms EZTM for the gear
couplings it was appointed to the range Rc = (1.71.8) d,
and for gear spindles Rc = 0.5 d.
When operating a gear coupling with the axes distortion
angle equal to the center of the bearing contact during
one revolution moves along the length of the tooth from
one side to another and back again, moving away from
the middle on the value of xa = R sina
The shift of the contact causes a significant increase in
bending stresses at the teeth base, so reduction of xa by
decreasing R is beneficial to the work of the coupling. On
the other hand, the decrease in R leads to an increase in
contact pressure between the teeth. So optimization of the
radius R is a multi criteria problem.
Theoretical and experimental study of load distribution
between teeth and along each of them showed that the
maximum load occurs at a distance xa from the middle
plane, and in the middle of the tooth it is minimal.
Therefore, in the process of wear of the teeth their side
surface changes the original form and has acquired the socalled "natural modification".
This profile (Fig. 4) is symmetrical convex curve of
variable curvature. In the middle the curvature radius is
minimal and in the normal section must be equal to the
curvature radius of the face involute profile in the pole of
meshing R0 = m z sin.

Sergey Lagutin, Boris Utkin, Alexey Klochkov: Gear Couplings and Spindles With Equal in Strength Teeth;
Machine Design, Vol.4(2012) No.3, ISSN 1821-1259; pp. 167-170

Fig.4. Tooth normal profile of natural modification.

As the profile approaches the end faces the curvature
radius should increase and reach a maximum at a distance
xa from the hub middle. Several options for the equations
of curves that satisfy this condition have been proposed.
In particular in [2] it was described by the equation:
y =

tan a
16

2
4
6

15 x 5 x + x
3

xa
xa
xa5

(4)
Fig.5. Tooth tangential modification

that provides a zero curvature at the points of application

of maximum load at a given distortion angle a.
More detail on the teeth longitudinal modification
considered in [4].

4. TOOTH TANGENTIAL MODIFICATION

The main criterion for determining the load carrying
capacity of gear coupling is a bending strength of the
teeth, which in turn depends on the bending stresses in the
dangerous section at the base of the tooth.
In a traditional coupling design (Fig. 2) the hub tooth
thickness Sf1 in this section is essentially smaller than the
thickness of the cage tooth Sf2. Accordingly, the bending
strength of the hub teeth is less than the cage teeth. .
The maximum bending stress at the base of the hub tooth
Fmax is calculated by the empirical formula [2]:
Fmax= 6 kc kb P/ Sl12,

(5)

where P is a peripheral force, kc and kb are factors taking

into account the stress concentration and location of load
application. It follows that under otherwise things being
equal the coupling load capacity, i.e. the value of the
permissible transmitted torque is proportional to Sl12.
So due to equalizing the strength of hub and cage teeth
the coupling load capacity can be significantly improved.
In the 90-th the complex of theoretical and experimental
works on creation of couplings with equal strength teeth
was held at the EZTM. The effect of equal bending
strength has been achieved by the tangential modification
of the basic rack parameters (Fig. 5).
When saving all the diametrical sizes of gears the hub
tooth pitch thickness S1 was calculated from the condition
that Sl1 = Sf2 and depending on the teeth number was
increased by the value S = (0.220.25) m. The cage
teeth pitch thickness S2 was reduced by the same value.
Thus, the thickness of Sl1 was increased by 10 - 12%.
This decision was protected by RF patent 1598563 [3].
It formed the basis of the GOST R 50895-96, and when
combined with a number of other decisions allowed to
increase load carrying capacity in comparison with
couplings produced earlier about half as much.

With manufacturing application the tangential

modification required the development and production of
special cutting tools: hobs with thinned teeth for cutting
the outer hub teeth and broaches with thick teeth for
internal cage tooth. For the first eight sizes of serially
produced couplings with small modules (m = 2.54), the
decision was economically feasible because the cost of a
tool scheduled replacement quickly paid off.

5. TOOTH ADDENDUM MODIFICATION

Large couplings with modules m = 614 are produced
individually. In this case, the hub teeth should be cut by
standard worm hobs with the tooth pitch thickness
S0 = 0.5 m and the tooth addendum ha0 1.25m.
The desired thickening of the hub teeth may be achieved
with addendum modification, i.e. the displacement of the
tool at a distance xm from the machining hub axis.
The main proportions of the teeth in the middle section of
the modified couplings are shown in Figure 6.

Fig.6. Tooth addendum modification

169

Sergey Lagutin, Boris Utkin, Alexey Klochkov: Gear Couplings and Spindles With Equal in Strength Teeth;
Machine Design, Vol.4(2012) No.3, ISSN 1821-1259; pp. 167-170

The cage tooth depth is retained the same as previously:

h2 = ha2 + ha1 = 1.8 m. The radial clearance near the hub
teeth bottom is reduced to a value of Cr = 0.3 m. It is
sufficient under the condition the simultaneous barrelshaped modification and allows to reduce the hub tooth
addendum to a value ha1= 0.85 m and full tooth depth to
h1 = h2+ Cr = 2.1 m.
The estimated pitch thicknesses of teeth are defined with
accepting the minimum side backlash Ct = Cn/cos as:
S1 = m (0.5 +2x tan ), S2 = m S1 Ct

(6)

The measuring thickness chords Sy1 and Sy2 are set on a

circle of diameter dy = m (z+2x) and are calculated by
conventional for involute gearing methods.
The same methods determine the thickness Sl1of the hub
tooth in a dangerous section of the diameter da2 and the
thickness Sf2 of the cage tooth on the root diameter df2.
The cage internal teeth are cut with standard gear-cutting
shaper. However to improve the gear shaping accuracy
and productivity the shaper is grinded on the outer cone
so that the final position it processed the bottom and the
both sides of the internal tooth simultaneously.
The shaper parameters, such as: the teeth number of z0,
addendum factor x0, base diameter db0 and outer diameter
da0 should be related to the parameters of a processing
cage by equation:
x x0 =

z z0
d db 0
Cn , (7)
[inv(acos b
) inv ]
2 tan
d f 2 da0
2m sin

Hence, the diameter da0 can be defined for a given factor

x, as well as the value of x is found for the selected da0.
When choosing a factor x it is necessary to consider also
the following technological restrictions.
(i) After rounding the outer diameter the shaper tooth
height should be at least 2 modules.
(ii) The shaper of the same diameter da0 should be used for
cages of the same module with different teeth numbers.
(iii) The radius of the fillet between the inner circle and
involute profile of the cage tooth shall not exceed 0.1 m.
During the revising of the coupling standard series, when
necessary, the tooth module was also increased.
Comparison of previous and modified couplings is
presented in Table 1. In this table T is the permissible
transmitted torque, kNm. As it is shown it was increased
for modified couplings by 25...40%.
Table 1. Technical specifications of couplings sizes 9-19.

9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
170

Previous design
m
6
6
8
8
10
10
10
12
12
12
12

z
36
56
48
54
48
54
58
56
64
72
80

T
35
50
71
100
150
200
250
375
560
750
1000

Modified couplings
m
6
6
8
8
10
10
12
12
12
14
14

z
36
56
48
54
48
54
48
56
64
60
68

x
0.425
0.483
0.425
0.463
0.450
0.500
0.400
0.442
0.483
0.650
0.700

T
50
71
100
140
200
250
350
500
710
1000
1250

6. TEETH HEAT TREATMENT

For the couplings sizes 1-10 the high frequency current
(HFC) hardening is performed by ring inducers at the
teeth both of hubs and cages to hardness of 4251 HRC.
For the couplings sizes 11-19 as well as for gear spindles
the HFC hardening is performed at the hub outer teeth by
module profile inducers. The cage internal teeth of these
connections are subjected to bulk hardening up to the
hardness of 260290 HB.
At present, the research works are completed on induction
hardening of the cage teeth surfaces for connections with
a pitch diameter above 400 mm. The technology of HFC
hardening is developed. Three module inducers with
modules 12, 14 are designed and manufactured.
Hardening of cages prototypes is held with measuring the
tooth hardness and the cage geometrical parameters
before and after hardening. The results are positive.
In the near future HFC hardening of cage teeth will be
implemented in several sizes of connections, which will
increase their load carrying capacity by next 20...25%.

7. CONCLUSION
1. To ensure equal strength of hub and cage thickness of
the teeth at their bases should be equalized. In the massproduced couplings with small modules, this effect is
achieved by tangential modification of the basic rack,
provided manufacturing of special tools.
2. For individually produced large couplings and spindles
a similar effect is achieved by addendum modification of
the teeth. In this case, the hub teeth cut by standard worm
hobs and cage teeth by gear cutting shapers.
3. The technique of re-grinding of the shaper outer cone is
developed, that provides simultaneous processing of the
bottom and both sides of the cage internal teeth.
4. The wear resistance of gear couplings is increased by
longitudinal modifying the hub tooth, close to the "natural
modification" that the teeth get in the process of wear.
5. Improvement of the gear coupling geometry enhances
its load carrying capacity by 25...40%.
6. Further increase in load capacity and wear resistance
can be achieved by HFC hardening of the cage tooth
surfaces to the hardness of 45...50 HRC.

REFERENCES
1. Airapetov E.L., Mirzajanov D.B. (1991) Gear Joint
Couplings. "Nauka. 248 p. (in Russian).
2. Airapetov E.L. et al (2000). Improvement of Gear
Couplings and Spindles EZTM Design. // Tyazheloje
Mashinostrojenie. No 12, pp. 10 -12 (in Russian).
3. USSR Author's Certificates and RF Patents:
1037713 (1981); 1037714 (1981);
1410611 (1986); 1423834 (1986);
1598563 (1990); 1672781 (1991)
Gear Coupling, Int. Cl.: F 16D 3/18.
4. Lagutin S., Utkin B., Klochkov A. (2012). Upgrading
of the Geometry of Gear Couplings, Proceedings of 7th International Symposium, ISBN 978-86-7892-3999, Kuzmanovich S. (Ed.), pp. 27-30, Balatonfured.