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Increased capacity and performance with reduced size, weight, and cost for superior gear drives
Wherever gears and/or bearings are used the gear bearing technology can perform better, while also creating a more compact package that is simpler and stronger. Benefits include:
Gear bearings can be used as fixed mechanical advantage speed reducers in many applications.
Gear bearings provide superior speed reduction in a small package. They form rolling friction systems that function both as gears and bearings and are compatible with most gear types, including spur, helical, elliptical, and bevel gears. These self-synchronized components can be in the form of planets, sun, rings, racks, and segments thereof. The design reduces micro chatter and eliminates rotational wobble to create smooth and precise control. It offers tighter mesh, more even gear loading, and reduced friction and wear How it works
By incorporating helical gear teeth forms (including herringbone), gear bearings provide outstanding thrust bearing performance. They also provide unprecedented high- and low-speed reduction through the incorporation of phase tuning. Phase tuning allows differentiation in the number of teeth that must be engaged between input and output rings in a planetary gearset, enabling successful reduction ratios of 2:1 to 2,000:1. They provide smooth and accurate control with rifle-true anti-backlash, meaning that the inner portion of a gear spins (like a rifle bullet) as it moves axially via spring action. The spinning motion continues until the backlash is taken out. But, the rifling angle is a mechanical locking angle so the gear cannot back-drive. This produces a planetary transmission with zero backlash. Gear bearing components can also be arranged to form linear motion devices and motion conversion devices, as well as pure bearing applications. In all instances, superior performance, strength, and simplicity can be achieved. NASA's gear bearing technology is based on two key concepts, the roller gear bearing and the phase-shifted gear bearing. A new modular gear bearing is also offered with a simplified manufacturing technique. All designs are capable of efficiently carrying large thrust loads. Roller Gear Bearing
This roller gear bearing animation shows visualization of the speed reduction.
The phase-shifted gear bearing has teeth rotated with respect to each other such that the top surface of one side intersects with the bottom surface of the other side. In the area where the teeth intersect, the teeth are beveled from the top of the tooth down to the root circle. When meshed with another phase-shifted gear, the beveled tooth surfaces contact each other as with four-way thrust bearings. Why It Is better Existing gear systems have drawbacks including weak structures, large size, and poor reliability, as well as high cost for some types (e.g., harmonic drives). Gear bearings solve these problems with simpler construction, fewer parts, and superior strength. In planetary gearsets, gear bearings can eliminate planet carriers or planet bearings, substantially reducing parts count and cost. The ring gear can be mated with a motor housing to eliminate the motor's front bearing and further reduce cost. In addition, gear bearings eliminate concerns that the center of the carrier is coincident with the center of the sun gear and equalizes the loading for the planet gears. Gear bearings are also very compact.
By selecting the appropriate manufacturing method, gear bearings can be tailored to benefit any application from toys to aircraft. For tight-tolerance applications, such as in helicopters, machined gear bearings could provide very high performance over conventional gearsets. For medium-range applications, such as in power tools, cast gear bearings could reduce cost and size. For low-tolerance applications, such as toys, injection molded plastic gear bearings could substantially reduce cost. Beyond reducing parts, the high-load capacity of gear bearings can further reduce cost by enabling the use of less expensive, lower strength materials. Alternatively, gear bearings using high-strength materials (at higher prices) can be used to create lighter, stronger, and more compact gearsets for the same cost. If your company is interested in becoming a licensed supplier of gear bearing prototypes, please contact: Innovative Partnerships Program Office
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center has patented the gear bearings technology (U.S. Patent #6,626,792). Additional patents are also being pursued. (Link opens new browser window.)
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This technology is part of NASA’s Innovative Partnerships Program Office, which seeks to transfer technology into and out of NASA to benefit the space program and U.S. industry. NASA invites companies to consider licensing the Gear Bearings (GSC-14207-1 and GSC-14790) technology for commercial applications or becoming a licensed supplier of gear bearing prototypes. For information and forms related to the technology licensing and partnering process, please visit the Licensing and Partnering page. (Link opens new browser window) If you are interested in more information or want to pursue transfer or prototyping of this technology, please contact: Innovative Partnerships Program Office
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NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) invites companies to license the revolutionary gear bearing technology. This technology represents a mechanical architecture breakthrough by combining gear and bearing functions into a single unit that significantly improves gear drives across the board for electrical, internal combustion, and turbine motors. The gear bearing design incorporates rifle-true anti-backlash, improved thrust bearing performance, and phase-tuning techniques for superior low-speed reduction. Because it combines gear and bearing functions, it reduces weight, number of parts, size, and cost, while also increasing load capacity and performance.
Gear bearings eliminate separate bearings, inner races, and carriers, as well as intermediate members between gears and bearings. Load paths go directly from one gear bearing component to another and then to ground.
