scope:

The paper deals with the geometry and kinematics of right-angle bevel gears that feature low tooth count. Right-angle bevel gears are a particular case of intersected-axis gearing (further Ia - gearing) with an arbitrary value of shaft angle. In this paper, gears that have 12 teeth and fewer are referred to as the low-tooth-count-gears (or LTC - gears, for simplicity). When operating, right-angle bevel gears often generate vibration and produce an excessive noise. Dynamic loading of the gear teeth can result in the tooth failure. These problems become more severe in bevel gearings with low tooth count. The performed analysis shows that inequality of base pitches of the gear and mating pinion is the root cause for insufficient performance of LTC - gears. In most applications, the main purpose of Ia - gearing is to smoothly transmit a rotation and torque between two intersected axes. Gear pairs that are capable of transmitting a uniform rotation from the driving shaft to the driven shaft are referred to as the geometrically accurate intersected-axis gear pairs (or, in other words, the ideal intersected-axis gear pairs).