What You Need to Know about Spur Gears
Gears are a very important part of any machine. Gears are very much used in different industries. When we think of gears, we think of the rotating part of a machine. These gears consist of cut teeth called cogs which mesh with teeth of other gears so that torque or a twisting force is transmitted.
The simplest type of gear is a spur gear and it consists of a cylinder or a disc. The spur gear is a type of gear where the edge of each tooth is straight and aligned parallel to the axis of rotation. Gears fit to parallel axles can rotate together correctly with this type of gear.
This is the most common type of gear and they are often used because it is easy to design and manufacture. These are very efficient types of gears. Their efficiency is higher than other types of gears especially the helical gears. The efficiency of helical gears is less compared to that of spur gears. It loses power and efficiency because of the sliding contact between their teeth. This motion produces more heat because of axial thrust produced.
Aside from the benefits mentioned above, there are other benefits to using spur gears. Because their teeth are straight and not angular, designing and constructing spur gears is very simple compared to helical gears. This makes it very easy to design and manufacture. Because of its simplicity, this kind of design does not easily fail or break. Another good thing about spur gears is that buying and maintaining them is not costly. With spur gears, you have more savings because it costs less.
There are also certain disadvantages to using spur gears. When used at certain speeds, they become very noisy and this is because the entire face engages at once. And this is why spur gears are also called slow speed gears. You can only use the spur gears to transfer power between parallel shafts. The transfer of power cannot be done if the shafts are non-parallel. And these gears are not as strong as other gear types. The load that they can handle is not much since their teeth are small and located parallel to the gear axis rather than situated diagonally as the helical gear teeth are.
Although using spur gears have their disadvantages the benefits of its simplicity, efficiency and affordability fear outweigh the disadvantages. And this has made spur gears that most popular type of gear being used in the market today. With spur gears you can expect gears that perform well and whatever requirements that different industries have, they have proven to meet them perfectly.
If you are looking to purchase spur gears for your industry, you can search for spur gear manufacturers in your area and provide for the needs of your industry.