Gearbox Maximum Torque

[Peter Johnson]

Originally Posted by Joe Johnson

It is probably outside the scope of a ChiefDelphi.com thread to cover the HOWs of these estimates. But perhaps we can give it a shot once we know more about what failure we are trying to predict.

But it's fun (and a good educational experience) to dig into the HOWs!

http://www.bostongear.com/pdf/gear_theory.pdf is a wonderful reference for gear theory. See page 6 of the PDF for the Lewis formula (Barth revision) for safe static stress on gear teeth, for example. Given the face width, diametral pitch, pitch diameter, pitch line velocity (or RPM), and material, the formulas and tables on that page will give you the max torque a gear can take (at least on the teeth).