Shape Deviation Network of an Injection-Molded Gear: Visualization of the Effect of Gate Position on Helix Deviation

The purpose of this study is to develop an evaluation method for assessing the relative relationship between gear tooth shape deviations on every gear tooth using network theory. Our previous study introduced a method for representing the phase difference between each helix deviation as a network, demonstrating that it is possible to identify the relative relationship between gear tooth deviations. However, there has been no in-depth analysis of the impact of injection molding on the gear’s phase difference network. In this paper, we begin by measuring the gear tooth shape deviation, calculating the correlation coefficient, and expressing it as an adjacency matrix. When the adjacency matrix was visualized and displayed as a pixel plot, a periodic pattern was formed. The relationship between the position of the gate used to inject molten resin material into the injection mold and the pixel plot were then investigated in detail, and it was confirmed that the helix deviation network of a gear manufactured with the injection molding process is useful as a new indicator for the manufacturing error of injection-molded plastic gear.