Digital simulation of spiral bevel gears' real tooth surfaces based on non-uniform rational B-spline

Based on the test of the real aviation spiral bevel gears, a new method was presented instead of the traditional rolling test. First, the real coordinate of a pair of spiral bevel gears was obtained with reference to the Gleason's measure criterion of spiral bevel gears, by using three coordinates test machine; then the digital gear faces were fitted by NURBS (non-uniform rational B-spline); finally, the tooth contact analysis was simulated according to the space engagement theory, and compared with the real rolling test experiment. The result demonstrates the accuracy and feasibility of the proposed method.