Abstract
Girth gears are applied in the mining, cement, and mineral processing industries and used in various types of horizontal mills, rotary dryers and kilns, and other heavy-gear ring applications. The large ring gears are normally fitted outside mills or kilns to provide the primary rotational drive. Recently, an external pinwheel gear set (e-PGS) was introduced to overcome manufacturing problems associated with girth gears. e-PGS is also suitable for low-speed, heavy-duty mechanical transmission and dusty and poor-lubrication conditions. This paper first presents a new profile modification of root relief for the e-PGS cam pinion. We then investigate load-stress factors to estimate the surface fatigue life by varying the shape design parameters. The results show that the contact fatigue life of an e-PGS can be extended significantly by increasing the profile shift coefficient. However, support bearing life of the pinwheel depends more on the contact force distribution than the profile shift coefficient.