Meshing Theory of ZC1 Worm Drive

The toroidal enveloping cylindrical worm drive, also called the ZC1 worm drive, is grinded by the toroidal grinding wheel. In this paper, the meshing theory for this worm drive is systematically established. According to this meshing theory, the meshing function, the meshing limit function, the equations of the worm helicoid and the worm gear tooth surface are obtained. A method for computing the normal vector of the instantaneous line of the ZC1 worm pair is proposed. Due to this method, the curvature interference limit function and the meshing quality parameters can be more simply and clearly obtained. Based on above results, the methods of the numerical calculation of the instantaneous lines and the conjugate zone are proposed. The initial values of the nonlinear equation systems, computed the conjugate zone and the contact lines, are detected and solved by the method based on the elimination method and geometric construction. The results of numerical example clearly reflect that the conjugate zone can almost cover the whole tooth surface of the worm gear and the effective working length of the worm cannot nearly exceed the half of its thread length. The values of the induced principle curvature and the sliding angle show that the lubrication performance is poor and the stress level is higher, near the meshing limit line and at the dedendum of the worm gear.