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. 2022 May 18;14(10):2064.
doi: 10.3390/polym14102064.

Wear and Service Life of 3-D Printed Polymeric Gears

Mert Safak Tunalioglu  1 , Bekir Volkan Agca  2
Affiliations

Wear and Service Life of 3-D Printed Polymeric Gears

Mert Safak Tunalioglu et al. Polymers (Basel). .

Abstract

Plastic gears are mostly used in the textile, food, and automotive industries due to their silent operation, corrosion resistance, and light and cheap advantages. Plastic gears are generally manufactured by injection molding or hobbing methods. The excess costs of the molds used to produce parts in injection molding and the problems of wastes that occur during production in hobbing lead companies to additive manufacturing, which is an alternative application. In the additive manufacturing method, the desired amount of product is produced without the problem of waste. In this study, the wear resistance of plastic spur gears produced by the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) method was determined theoretically. In order to determine the service life of gears, wear tests were carried out in the Forschungsstelle fur Zahnrader und Getriebebau (FZG) type test device at the same load and rotational speeds. polylactic acid (PLA), acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), and polyethylene terephthalate (PETG) thermoplastic polymer materials were used in the production of gears. When the gears rotate at the same load and rotational speeds, the most wear was observed in ABS, PLA, and PETG at the theoretically calculated wear depths. PETG is the most resistant material in terms of wear.

Keywords: ABS; FZG; PETG; PLA; plastic spur gear; service life; wear.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Tooth contact areas and limits (b) load-surface velocity distribution [25].
Figure 2
Figure 2
The relative movements of point p1 and p2 [47].
Figure 3
Figure 3
FDM type 3D Printer.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Polymeric spur gears (a) PLA, (b) ABS, (c) PETG.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Wear test rig.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Wear depth variations through tooth profile of plastic gears (a) ABS, (b) PLA, and (c) PETG.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Wear depth variations through tooth profile of plastic gears (a) ABS, (b) PLA, and (c) PETG.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Service life of gears fabricated of ABS.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Service life of gears fabricated of PLA.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Service life of gears fabricated of PETG.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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