Contact endurance of gearing teeth subjected to ion-beam nitriding

Gears treated by intense nitrogen ion flows were calculated for preventing deep contact pitting, allowing for the real distributions of hardness in the depth of the hardened layer and reduced stresses. A method for calculating the contact endurance of gears hardened by ion-beam nitriding was proposed. The results of the calculations and experiments have shown that ion-beam nitriding leads to an increase in the load-carrying capacity of a gear 1.31 times in comparison with that of a gear with gears subjected to traditional nitriding; the wear resistance of the ion-nitrided gears is two times greater than that of hardened and tempered gears.