The high performance required from aerospace gears places stringent requirements upon the metallurgical
quality, geometry, and surface finish of mating parts. In an effort to meet their mission requirements,
aerospace gears are often engineered to operate near the upper bounds of their theoretical design
allowables. Due to this, scuffing is a primary failure mode for aerospace gears.
It was previously shown that specimens having an isotropic superfinish using chemically accelerated
vibratory finishing had an improved performance in Rolling/Siliding Contact Fatigue (R/SCF) testing. lsotropic
superfinishing improved R/SCF resistance up to nine times that of baseline test specimens. These tests also
demonstrated the ability to successfully carry 30 percent higher loads for at least three times the life of the
baseline samples.[1 ]
A study was then conducted on actual gears having an isotropic superfinish. This study showed isotropic
superfinishing technology increased a gear’s resistance to contact fatigue by a factor of three, and increased
bending fatigue resistance by at least 10 percent. [2] This increase in gear performance translates to reduced
operation and sustainment costs, and also offers the potential for weight reduction in new transmission
designs.

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