The Investigation of the Working Conditions on 3D Printed Helical Gears

Helical gears have a greater coupling advantage than spur gears; and transmit higher power and speed. In this study, the working conditions (surface roughness, noise emission and wear changes) of plastic helical gears produced using polylactic acid (PLA) in 3D printers were experimentally investigated at different loads and speeds. At the end of the study, it was observed that, as the amount of torque acting on the system increased, the wear of the plastic gear increased, whereas the wear decreased as the rotation speed increased. The surface roughness of plastic gears is high depending on the layer thickness during production. The roughness values decreased with acclimatization wear and then increased according to the operating conditions and surface deterioration began. The operating noise emission measurements of the system increased at high loads and speeds. Helical gears produced under the same conditions have 5-8% lower noise-emission values than spur gears and can be used more widely, especially in electric motors. Based on this study, it can be said that gears produced using the AM method can be an alternative to the plastic injection molding method, especially when a small number of parts is important.