Calculation method for tooth thickness of cylindrical worm gear

The main purpose of this paper is to present a methodology for precisely calculating the tooth thickness of cylindrical worm gear, which is expounded detailedly with the worm gear in the toroidal surface enveloping cylindrical worm pair as an example. This method can compute the tooth thickness in any cross section of cylindrical worm gear, and it is universal for cylindrical worm gears. In an objective cross section, the tooth profile equations of both flanks of a typical cylindrical worm gear tooth are derived. A given radial dimension intersects with both flanks of the tooth profile, and the coordinates of intersection points are obtained by solving the corresponding nonlinear equations. Then, the distance between the two intersection points is tooth thickness. By utilizing the acquired key points, the tooth profile of cylindrical worm gear in its cross section is drawn by interpolation method. Based on the theory brought forward, the tooth thickness characteristics of cylindrical worm gear are analyzed. The change rule of the top thickness of cylindrical worm gear along the tooth width is discovered, and the change curve is plotted. The rule obtained is consistent with the experimental results, and thus the correctness of the current work is verified.