Investigation of methods to predict parallel and epicyclic gear transmission error

Gear mesh transmission error is a phenomenon that can lead to the troublesome noise known as gear whine. It is therefore important to be able to predict transmission error so it can be minimised at the design stage. This paper presents various methods of predicting transmission error and the importance of considering the effects of other components in the gearbox. The difficulty in predicting planetary gear transmission error is then explained and a software package that can predict it described. A simple one-stage planetary example then shows typical planetary gear transmission error results.