Theoretical and experimental investigations about flank breakage in bevel gears

Purpose – A failure mode called “flank breakage” is increasingly observed in cylindrical and bevel gears. Up to now, there was no calculation method available to determine the load‐carrying capacity related to flank breakage in bevel gears. Therefore, a research project was initiated to investigate the described failure mode in bevel gears and to develop a calculation method to predict the risk of flank breakage of such gears. The purpose of this paper is to describe this project.Design/methodology/approach – The presented research project contained: determination of the decisive influence parameters in experimental investigations with bevel gears; development of a model to explain flank breakage in bevel gears; and development of a calculation method and design rules to avoid flank breakage.Findings – In systematic tests, the influenced parameters of flank breakage were investigated. Besides the load torque, especially the case depth and the core hardness turned out as decisive parameters. A higher sulfu...