Compared with other common types of gears, bevel gears are intended to transfer energy between intersecting axes. Among the different teeth alignment of a bevel gear, perpendicular alignments are the most common, but they can also be made for nearly any angle, making it possible to change the operating angle. The gear’s teeth bearing surface, which is also called surface pitch, is conically tapered or shaped. By varying the teeth or diameter on every wheel, the gear’s mechanical advantage can also be altered. The ratio of teeth between the drive and driven wheels can either be decreased or increased.
With this setup, the rotational drive and torque of the succeeding wheel can be changed in connection to the first one. When its speed goes up, the torque decreases and vice versa. The teeth alignment of bevel gears can be done in four different configurations. The first one is straight wherein the teeth look similar to that of spur gears but are narrowing towards the apex. This kind of gears can become noisy easily due to the abrupt contact between the meshing teeth. The second alignment is the spiral in which the teeth resemble the ones found in helical gears with angled teeth in zero bevel gears.
The other two alignments are the hypoid and crown. Hypoid teeth alignment looks the same with spiral gears as well but they differ in terms of the mating gears that don’t have intersecting axes. This setup allows for a smoother tooth engagement and a bigger pinion. Conversely, in crown alignment, as what the name implies, their teeth appear like crown points that have pitch angles of 90 degrees and parallel with the axis. Lastly, bevel gears have various applications such as in locomotives, automobiles, marine applications, cooling towers, steel and power plants, printing press, and many more.
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