ABSTRACT
Gears are used for transmission of motion or power from one shaft to another. The type
of gear, and design features, determine not only the operating characteristics of a gear
pair but also whether it may fail prematurely. Testing of gears is essential to know their
reliability in their field performance. Laboratory methods, though cannot fully create a
replica of the environment to which these gears are subjected to while working in the
fields, but these methods certainly help in building confidence in their level of
performance expected. In order to measure the performance of the gear it has to be
designed, fabricated and tested. Various types of gear testing machines are available
which use the principle of “four square" in which two gear sets are joined back to back
and locked together after applying a twisting couple to one of the connecting shafts.
The novelty of this gear testing machine is that in order to apply tooth loads back to
back, a torque meter is employed, which helps apply metered torque, which eliminates
twisting of a long shaft. The power required to drive this test rig is only the frictional
power loss occurring between gear tooth contacts. This paper discusses about design
and development of a power re-circulating test rig for testing gear samples.