Estimation of fatigue strength enhancement for carburized and shot-peened gears

An experimental formula has been proposed to estimate the bending fatigue strength of carburized gears from the hardness and the residual stress. The derivation of the formula is briefly reviewed, and the effectiveness of the formula is demonstrated in this article. The comparison with many test results for carburized and shot-peened gears verifies that the formula is effective for the approximate estimation of the fatigue strength. The formula quantitatively shows a way of enhancing fatigue strength, i.e., the increase of hardness and residual stress at the fillet. The strength is enhanced about 300 MPa by an appropriate shot peening, and it can be improved still more by the surface removal by electropolishing.