This study consists of experimental studies involving two modes of gear contact fatigue failure: gear pitting (spalling) and gear scuffing. For pitting studies, several materials and surface treatments were investigated at various stress levels. These surface treatments included (i) hobbed and shaved (baseline), (ii) chemically polished, (iii) shot peened and plastic honed, and (iv) ground gears. Pitting fatigue lives of chemically polished gears were greater than those of baseline specimens. Both shot peened and plastic honed gears and ground gears were shown to have greater pitting fatigue lives than baseline gears. The improved pitting fatigue life of ground gears over baseline gears appears related to the improved involute profile shapes of the specimens.
For gear scuffing experiments, the standard ISO 14635-1 FZG Scuffing Test was performed on AISI 8620 type A spur gears. These experiments included four uncoated gear pairs and one gear pair coated with an experimental PVD coating. Uncoated gears encountered scuffing during Stages 11 and 12. A high correlation between temperature and scuffing results was detected for both coated and uncoated specimens.