Manufacturing Method for Large Cylindrical Worm Gear Set of ISO Type I on Universal CNC Machine Tools

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript presents an manufacturing method for large cylindrical worm gear using end milling. This method can avoid the special gear generating machines or special tools. The study is interesting. The following small problems can be considered.

1, When the modelling of the tooth flank of worm wheel/worm, how to establish the correct 3D model. For example, how to make sure the two side of the tooth flank of the worm are at the same starting point.

2, As we all known, there are ZN/ZA/ZI and other types of worm wheel. Can the proposed method be used in the manufacturing of other types of worm wheel?

3, The conclusion should be more useful. This means you should show your most important and useful concluded point, so that the engineering/scientist can directly understand the achievement of the study.

4, The literature review during recent 3 or 5 years should added more.

Author Response

See attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The article in general is good. The following comments are mainly related to the technical side and do not diminish the substantive value of the publication.

1. There is no line numbering in the article provided. This makes it difficult to evaluate and comment.

2. The authors conducted an imprecise review of the literature. Most of the literature articles are listed in two sentences:

The second paragraph of Chapter 1. Introduction lists items 5÷14 and the fifth paragraph for items 15÷31.

3. The main missing problem is the focus in the article only on TCA analysis, bypassing the analysis of gear with load (LTCA). This is probably due to the applied method of tooth contact analysis. However, the nature of the work of large worm gears is associated with their high load. The authors themselves wrote that these gears are used, for example in rolling mills of iron manufacturing, etc. (paragraphs four, 1.Introduction).

a) Was there a computer analysis of LTCA, e.g. using FEA? 

b) Would it be possible to compare the tooth contact pattern of the used worm gear set with the analytical LTCA results, but also obtained by the authors (TCA)? 

From my experience, that the observed differences would lead to many conclusions. Maybe this is a task for further research, or perhaps the authors could mention something about the LTCA in this article.

4. In Figures 1,2,3,6 the beginning of the system is marked with the letter "O", and it should be "zero" "0". Please also standardize fonts. 

5. In Fig. 4, the not readable description "Transmission error". Does the inscription IWASA TECH mean that the authors have the laws to use the software of a commercial company - this is not noted in the article (only the affiliation one of the authors). Was the TCA analysis done yourself by the authors of the article?

6. The tool path shown in Figure 9 is not clear and adds nothing. Who understand the problem can understand what the machining looks like based on the description. Maybe you can give one better Figure, or enlarge an area of interest, or skip a drawing.

7. First sentence of Chapter 6. Conclusions.: I do not know what “previous paper” the authors wrote (I would ask for a reference to items from the literature).

Author Response

See attached file.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf