epicyclic gearbox

In an epicyclic or planetary gear train, several spur gears distributed evenly around the circumference manage between a gear with internal teeth and a gear with external teeth on a concentric orbit. The circulation of the spur equipment occurs in analogy to the orbiting of the planets in the solar system. This is one way planetary gears acquired their name.
The parts of a planetary gear train can be divided into four main constituents.
The housing with integrated internal teeth is known as a ring gear. In the majority of cases the housing is fixed. The driving sun pinion is certainly in the center of the ring equipment, and is coaxially arranged in relation to the output. The sun pinion is usually attached to a clamping system to be able to offer the mechanical link with the engine shaft. During operation, the planetary gears, which are installed on a planetary carrier, roll between the sun pinion and the band equipment. The planetary carrier likewise represents the end result shaft of the gearbox.
The sole purpose of the planetary gears is to transfer the mandatory torque. The amount of teeth does not have any effect on the transmission ratio of the gearbox. The amount of planets can also vary. As the amount of planetary gears increases, the distribution of the load increases and then the torque that can be transmitted. Increasing the number of tooth engagements likewise reduces the rolling electricity. Since only part of the total end result should be transmitted as rolling power, a planetary equipment is extremely efficient. The advantage of a planetary equipment compared to an individual spur gear is based on this load distribution. It is therefore possible to transmit large torques wit
h high efficiency with a compact design and style using planetary gears.
Provided that the ring gear has a frequent size, different ratios can be realized by varying the quantity of teeth of the sun gear and the amount of the teeth of the planetary gears. Small the sun equipment, the greater the ratio. Technically, a meaningful ratio range for a planetary stage is approx. 3:1 to 10:1, since the planetary gears and the sun gear are extremely small above and below these ratios. Larger ratios can be acquired by connecting a variety of planetary phases in series in the same ring gear. In this case, we speak of multi-stage gearboxes.
With planetary gearboxes the speeds and torques could be overlaid by having a band gear that’s not set but is driven in virtually any direction of rotation. Additionally it is possible to repair the drive shaft in order to pick up the torque via the band gear. Planetary gearboxes have become extremely important in lots of areas of mechanical engineering.
They have become particularly more developed in areas where high output levels and fast speeds must be transmitted with favorable mass inertia ratio adaptation. Great transmission ratios can also easily be achieved with planetary gearboxes. Because of the positive properties and compact design and style, the gearboxes have a large number of potential uses in professional applications.
The features of planetary gearboxes:
Coaxial arrangement of input shaft and output shaft
Load distribution to several planetary gears
High efficiency because of low rolling power
Almost unlimited transmission ratio options due to combo of several planet stages
Suitable as planetary switching gear because of fixing this or that the main gearbox
Possibility of use as overriding gearbox
Favorable volume output
Suitability for a variety of applications
Epicyclic gearbox is an automatic type gearbox where parallel shafts and gears set up from manual gear box are replaced with more compact and more reputable sun and planetary type of gears arrangement and also the manual clutch from manual electric power train is replaced with hydro coupled clutch or torque convertor which made the transmitting automatic.
The thought of epicyclic gear box is extracted from the solar system which is considered to an ideal arrangement of objects.
The epicyclic gearbox usually includes the P N R D S (Parking, Neutral, Reverse, Travel, Sport) modes which is obtained by fixing of sun and planetary gears based on the need of the travel.
The different parts of Epicyclic Gearbox
1. Ring gear- This is a type of gear which appears like a ring and have angular lower teethes at its internal surface ,and is placed in outermost job in en epicyclic gearbox, the interior teethes of ring gear is in frequent mesh at outer level with the set of planetary gears ,it is also referred to as annular ring.
2. Sun gear- It is the equipment with angular minimize teethes and is placed in the middle of the epicyclic gearbox; the sun gear is in constant mesh at inner stage with the planetary gears and is normally connected with the suggestions shaft of the epicyclic equipment box.
One or more sun gears can be utilised for achieving different output.
3. Planet gears- They are small gears used in between band and sun gear , the teethes of the planet gears are in continuous mesh with the sun and the ring gear at both inner and outer tips respectively.
The axis of the planet gears are attached to the planet carrier which is carrying the output shaft of the epicyclic gearbox.
The planet gears can rotate about their axis and in addition can revolve between your ring and the sun gear just like our solar system.
4. Planet carrier- It is a carrier attached with the axis of the earth gears and is in charge of final tranny of the output to the output shaft.
The planet gears rotate over the carrier and the revolution of the planetary gears causes rotation of the carrier.
5. Brake or clutch band- The device used to fix the annular gear, sunshine gear and planetary equipment and is controlled by the brake or clutch of the vehicle.
Working of Epicyclic Gearbox
The working principle of the epicyclic gearbox is founded on the actual fact the fixing any of the gears i.e. sun gear, planetary gears and annular equipment is done to obtain the expected torque or acceleration output. As fixing the above causes the variation in equipment ratios from substantial torque to high speed. So let’s observe how these ratios are obtained
First gear ratio
This provide high torque ratios to the vehicle which helps the vehicle to move from its initial state and is obtained by fixing the annular gear which in turn causes the earth carrier to rotate with the energy supplied to the sun gear.
Second gear ratio
This gives high speed ratios to the automobile which helps the vehicle to achieve higher speed during a travel, these ratios are obtained by fixing the sun gear which in turn makes the planet carrier the driven member and annular the travelling member to be able to achieve high speed ratios.
Reverse gear ratio
This gear reverses the direction of the output shaft which in turn reverses the direction of the automobile, this gear is achieved by fixing the earth gear carrier which makes the annular gear the motivated member and sunlight gear the driver member.
Note- More velocity or torque ratios can be achieved by increasing the quantity planet and sun equipment in epicyclic gear field.
High-speed epicyclic gears can be built relatively tiny as the power is distributed over a variety of meshes. This outcomes in a low capacity to fat ratio and, together with lower pitch brand velocity, contributes to improved efficiency. The small gear diameters produce lower moments of inertia, significantly minimizing acceleration and deceleration torque when starting and braking.
The coaxial design permits smaller and therefore more cost-effective foundations, enabling building costs to be kept low or entire generator sets to be integrated in containers.
The reasons why epicyclic gearing can be used have been covered in this magazine, so we’ll expand on this issue in just a few places. Let’s start by examining an essential aspect of any project: expense. Epicyclic gearing is generally less costly, when tooled properly. Being an would not consider making a 100-piece lot of gears on an N/C milling equipment with a form cutter or ball end mill, one should not really consider making a 100-piece large amount of epicyclic carriers on an N/C mill. To retain carriers within sensible manufacturing costs they should be created from castings and tooled on single-purpose devices with multiple cutters at the same time removing material.
Size is another factor. Epicyclic gear units are used because they are smaller than offset gear sets since the load is shared among the planed gears. This makes them lighter and smaller sized, versus countershaft gearboxes. Likewise, when configured correctly, epicyclic gear units are more efficient. The next example illustrates these rewards. Let’s assume that we’re developing a high-speed gearbox to gratify the following requirements:
• A turbine delivers 6,000 hp at 16,000 RPM to the input shaft.
• The result from the gearbox must travel a generator at 900 RPM.
• The design your life is usually to be 10,000 hours.
With these requirements in mind, let’s look at three feasible solutions, one involving a single branch, two-stage helical gear set. Another solution takes the original gear established and splits the two-stage lowering into two branches, and the third calls for using a two-level planetary or celebrity epicyclic. In this situation, we chose the superstar. Let’s examine each one of these in greater detail, seeking at their ratios and resulting weights.
The first solution-a single branch, two-stage helical gear set-has two identical ratios, derived from taking the square root of the final ratio (7.70). In the process of reviewing this solution we see its size and excess weight is very large. To lessen the weight we after that explore the possibility of earning two branches of an identical arrangement, as seen in the second solutions. This cuts tooth loading and reduces both size and fat considerably . We finally reach our third option, which may be the two-stage celebrity epicyclic. With three planets this equipment train minimizes tooth loading significantly from the initial approach, and a relatively smaller amount from remedy two (observe “methodology” at end, and Figure 6).
The unique design and style characteristics of epicyclic gears are a large part of what makes them so useful, but these very characteristics can make creating them a challenge. In the next sections we’ll explore relative speeds, torque splits, and meshing considerations. Our target is to make it easy so that you can understand and use epicyclic gearing’s unique style characteristics.
Relative Speeds
Let’s get started by looking in how relative speeds operate in conjunction with different arrangements. In the star set up the carrier is fixed, and the relative speeds of sunlight, planet, and band are simply determined by the speed of 1 member and the number of teeth in each equipment.
In a planetary arrangement the band gear is fixed, and planets orbit the sun while rotating on earth shaft. In this arrangement the relative speeds of the sun and planets are determined by the number of teeth in each equipment and the quickness of the carrier.
Things get somewhat trickier whenever using coupled epicyclic gears, since relative speeds may not be intuitive. Hence, it is imperative to often calculate the swiftness of the sun, planet, and ring in accordance with the carrier. Understand that possibly in a solar set up where the sun is fixed it includes a speed romantic relationship with the planet-it isn’t zero RPM at the mesh.
Torque Splits
When considering torque splits one assumes the torque to be divided among the planets equally, but this might not exactly be considered a valid assumption. Member support and the number of planets determine the torque split represented by an “effective” amount of planets. This amount in epicyclic sets constructed with two or three planets is generally equal to the actual quantity of planets. When a lot more than three planets are used, however, the effective number of planets is constantly less than the actual number of planets.
Let’s look in torque splits when it comes to fixed support and floating support of the participants. With fixed support, all participants are supported in bearings. The centers of sunlight, ring, and carrier will never be coincident due to manufacturing tolerances. Because of this fewer planets are simultaneously in mesh, resulting in a lower effective number of planets posting the strain. With floating support, one or two users are allowed a small amount of radial independence or float, that allows the sun, band, and carrier to seek a position where their centers are coincident. This float could be less than .001-.002 in .. With floating support three planets will be in mesh, resulting in a higher effective number of planets sharing the load.
Multiple Mesh Considerations
At this time let’s explore the multiple mesh considerations that needs to be made when making epicyclic gears. First we must translate RPM into mesh velocities and determine the quantity of load request cycles per unit of time for each member. The first rung on the ladder in this determination is normally to calculate the speeds of each of the members in accordance with the carrier. For instance, if the sun equipment is rotating at +1700 RPM and the carrier is rotating at +400 RPM the quickness of the sun gear relative to the carrier is +1300 RPM, and the speeds of world and ring gears can be calculated by that rate and the numbers of teeth in each of the gears. The make use of signals to symbolize clockwise and counter-clockwise rotation can be important here. If sunlight is rotating at +1700 RPM (clockwise) and the carrier is rotating -400 RPM (counter-clockwise), the relative velocity between the two participants is usually +1700-(-400), or +2100 RPM.
The next step is to determine the amount of load application cycles. Since the sun and ring gears mesh with multiple planets, the quantity of load cycles per revolution relative to the carrier will be equal to the quantity of planets. The planets, nevertheless, will experience only 1 bi-directional load app per relative revolution. It meshes with sunlight and ring, however the load is usually on opposite sides of one’s teeth, leading to one fully reversed pressure cycle. Thus the planet is known as an idler, and the allowable tension must be reduced thirty percent from the value for a unidirectional load program.
As noted previously mentioned, the torque on the epicyclic members is divided among the planets. In examining the stress and existence of the people we must look at the resultant loading at each mesh. We discover the concept of torque per mesh to be somewhat confusing in epicyclic gear research and prefer to look at the tangential load at each mesh. For instance, in looking at the tangential load at the sun-planet mesh, we consider the torque on the sun equipment and divide it by the effective amount of planets and the working pitch radius. This tangential load, combined with the peripheral speed, is utilized to compute the energy transmitted at each mesh and, modified by the load cycles per revolution, the life span expectancy of every component.
In addition to these issues there may also be assembly complications that need addressing. For example, positioning one planet in a position between sun and band fixes the angular position of the sun to the ring. The next planet(s) can now be assembled only in discreet locations where the sun and band can be concurrently engaged. The “least mesh angle” from the initially planet that will support simultaneous mesh of the next planet is equal to 360° divided by the sum of the amounts of teeth in the sun and the ring. As a result, in order to assemble extra planets, they must end up being spaced at multiples of the least mesh position. If one wishes to have equal spacing of the planets in a simple epicyclic set, planets could be spaced equally when the sum of the number of teeth in sunlight and ring is divisible by the amount of planets to an integer. The same rules apply in a substance epicyclic, but the set coupling of the planets brings another degree of complexity, and appropriate planet spacing may require match marking of tooth.
With multiple components in mesh, losses have to be considered at each mesh to be able to measure the efficiency of the machine. Ability transmitted at each mesh, not input power, can be used to compute power loss. For simple epicyclic units, the total electrical power transmitted through the sun-world mesh and ring-world mesh may be significantly less than input vitality. This is among the reasons that easy planetary epicyclic pieces are more efficient than other reducer arrangements. In contrast, for most coupled epicyclic units total electrical power transmitted internally through each mesh could be greater than input power.
What of power at the mesh? For straightforward and compound epicyclic units, calculate pitch series velocities and tangential loads to compute electric power at each mesh. Values can be acquired from the planet torque relative swiftness, and the working pitch diameters with sunshine and band. Coupled epicyclic units present more technical issues. Elements of two epicyclic sets could be coupled 36 different ways using one suggestions, one productivity, and one reaction. Some plans split the power, while some recirculate electricity internally. For these kinds of epicyclic sets, tangential loads at each mesh can only be established through the utilization of free-body diagrams. Additionally, the components of two epicyclic sets could be coupled nine various ways in a string, using one source, one output, and two reactions. Let’s look at a few examples.
In the “split-electricity” coupled set displayed in Figure 7, 85 percent of the transmitted electric power flows to band gear #1 and 15 percent to band gear #2. The effect is that coupled gear set can be scaled-down than series coupled units because the electricity is split between the two elements. When coupling epicyclic pieces in a string, 0 percent of the power will always be transmitted through each establish.
Our next example depicts a set with “ability recirculation.” This gear set happens when torque gets locked in the machine in a manner similar to what happens in a “four-square” test procedure for vehicle drive axles. With the torque locked in the system, the hp at each mesh within the loop boosts as speed increases. Therefore, this set will experience much higher ability losses at each mesh, resulting in drastically lower unit efficiency .
Determine 9 depicts a free-body diagram of a great epicyclic arrangement that encounters power recirculation. A cursory evaluation of this free-physique diagram explains the 60 percent performance of the recirculating establish shown in Figure 8. Since the planets are rigidly coupled collectively, the summation of forces on both gears must equivalent zero. The push at the sun gear mesh results from the torque input to sunlight gear. The drive at the next ring gear mesh results from the output torque on the ring gear. The ratio being 41.1:1, output torque is 41.1 times input torque. Adjusting for a pitch radius big difference of, say, 3:1, the induce on the second planet will be around 14 times the induce on the first world at the sun gear mesh. Therefore, for the summation of forces to equate to zero, the tangential load at the first band gear must be approximately 13 circumstances the tangential load at sunlight gear. If we presume the pitch line velocities to always be the same at the sun mesh and ring mesh, the energy loss at the ring mesh will be around 13 times higher than the power loss at sunlight mesh .