Basic Gear Frequently Asked Questions
What is a rack?
A rack is a straightened out gear, which has straight sided teeth evenly spaced which can theoretically extend to infinite length. It is the basis for most gear calculations
What is a lead?
In parallel axis gears, lead is a linear measurement of how far a helical trace must travel to make a complete rotation around the gear. Thus, a high helix gear has a short lead, a low helix gear has a long lead and a spur gear has an infinite lead.
What is an involute?
A gear tooth has a curved profile which is generated by a straight sided rack shaped tool
What is the difference between the metric and English system of gear calculation?
English:
- Tooth size expressed and “Diametral Pitch”.
- Inches and decimal inches
- Convert Diametral Pitch to Module: M=25.4/DP
Metric:
- Tooth size expressed as “Module”.
- Centimeters, Millimeters
- Convert Module to Diametral pitch thus: DP=25.4/M