Method of axial retention of gear on shaft

Abstract

Abstract A method of securing a metallic gear on a metallic shaft provides an improved axial retention of the gear on the shaft in particularly severe applications, as encountered in gear pumps. The method involves plastic deformation of the annular interface regions defined at the external junctions of a gear and shaft by the application of compressive forces over same, after the gear has been secured onto the shaft by conventional methods. The preferred practice of the method first includes the steps of radially retaining the gear on the shaft via shrink fit procedures which include heating the gear, cooling the shaft, inserting the shaft into the bore of the gear, and allowing the temperatures of the gear and shaft to equalize. Upon radial retention of the gear on the shaft, the novel axial retention system of this invention preferably involves a system of hardened steel wheels, equidistantly positioned about the annular interfaces of the gear and shaft, the wheels simultaneously contacting the latter interfaces with compressive forces of magnitudes sufficient to produce plastic deformation within the aforesaid interface regions.

Inventors

• 👤 Arthur B. Joyce

Bibliographic Details