Influence of carbon fiber reinforcement over the accuracy of injection molded polymer gear

S. Senthilvelan, R. Gnanamoorthy

Abstract

Injection molded polymer based gears are not preferred for precision motion applications due its directional shrinkage behavior. This paper attempts to predict the material shrinkage of unreinforced and carbon fiber reinforced nylon gears and correlate with gear metrological parameters. Fiber alignment along the tooth profile restricts the shrinkage and induces anisotropic shrinkage, which significantly decrease the deviation of involute profile parameter from the design values. Fibers embedded in the molded skin surface increases the gear tooth profile form deviations. Nonalignment of fibers across the gear tooth section increases tooth thickness, tooth-to-tooth spacing and radial runout deviations from design values.

Keywords

Injection molding; fiber orientation; anisotropy shrinkage; gear metrology

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IMEKO-TC14-2007-44.pdf

DOI

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IMEKO TC

TC14 - Measurement of Geometrical Quantities

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