Gear shaving originated as a means for avoiding undesirable undercutting of the root of the tooth in gears with smallnumbers of teeth (caused by imperfections in the tool). Modern gear shaving has a more general meaning and consists in apredeter-mined displacement of the initial contour, which is one of the main geometric parameters of gears. Thedisplacement from the center of the gear may be negative or positive (Figure 1). In the case of positive displacement, thetooth profile uses portions of the involute with large radii of curvature, which increases the contact strength and breakingstrength of the teeth. Gear shaving may be used to improve the quality of meshing between two gears or between a gearand a rack. The selection of the appropriate displacement can decrease the slippage of teeth against each other, reducewear, decrease the danger of jamming, and in-crease the efficiency of transmission.
