Resumen
An approach of ease-off flank modification for hypoid gears was proposed to improve the meshing performance of automobile drive axle. Firstly, a conjugate pinion matching with gear globally was developed based on gear meshing theory. Secondly, a modified pinion was represented by a sum of two vector functions determining the conjugate pinion and the normal ease-off deviations expressed by both predesigned transmission error function and tooth profile modification curves to change the initial contact clearance of the tooth. Thirdly, the best ease-off deviations were determined by optimizing the minimum amplitude of loaded transmission error (ALTE) based on tooth contact analysis (TCA) and loaded tooth contact analysis (LTCA). Finally, the results show that effective contact ratios (ee) are established by clearances both teeth space and of contact elliptical, and greatly affect ALTE. The ee is a variable value with increasing loads for the tooth with modification. ALTE decreases with increasing ee. After ee reaches the maximum, ALTE increases with increasing loads. The mismatch of the best ease-off tooth is minimal, which contributes to effective reduction in ALTE, thus significantly improving drive performance.