Effects of fillers in tooth slotting on meshing force and lubrication performance of filtering reducer

In order to improve the life of filtering reducer, a new structure is designed that gear tooth is slotted and tooth slotting is filled with red copper, hard aluminum alloys, nylon-1010 and nitrile rubber. Reducer finite element model (FEM) in different meshing locations is established based on a meshing model of planetary transmission with small tooth number difference, by which the meshing force in different engaging position is calculated. A mixed lubrication model is established by considering the roughness of tooth surface to calculate the lubrication status with different rotation speeds. The results of FEM analysis show that filler materials can increase the number of meshing pairs and decrease the meshing fore significantly. And maximum contact force decreases with the reduction of elastic modulus of filler materials. Lubrication calculation results show that filler materials can improve the lubrication performance effectively. Filler materials can increase the average film thickness in contact interface. The contact area ration is decreased by filler material when rotating speed is less than 1500 r/min, as rotating speed exceeds 1500 r/min, the decrease is not obvious. When speed is more than 1500 r/min, Filler materials can reduce the maximum contact stress in engage-in and engage-out point, however, the variation of maximum contact stress is irregular with the variation of the elastic modulus. In pitch point, nylon-1010 and nitrile rubber reduce the maximum contact stress significantly.