Plagued by gear noise and misalignment?

Every gear manufacturer knows that noise is often a big problem. As smaller, more powerful gearboxes are designed and built, reducing the noise of power transmission becomes nearly as big a problem as the transmission itself. Whether you enlarge the pinion, add noise-reducing materials, increase gear quality, or tinker with the gear ratio--many solutions have notable but varying effects. Design World, however, offers another solution for gear noise: Crowning.

Crowning, also known as barreling (the teeth of the gears) Design World says,

This technique involves changing the chordal thickness of the tooth along its axis. This modification eliminates end bearing by offering a contact bearing in the center of the gear.

Aside from reducing gearbox noise, crowning your gears also helps prevent misalignment caused by inaccurate machining of the casting, housing, or shafting. Crowning helps prevent uneven wear in your gearbox. It can be done during the gear cutting processes, reducing the amount of time for a complete effort.

The Design World article is very interesting, and worth a look if you've been faced with some recent gearbox noise and misalignment problems.