Profile Angle - Standard Profile Angles

Standard Profile Angles

In tools for cutting, grinding, and gaging gear teeth, the profile angle is the angle between a cutting edge or a cutting surface, and some principal direction such as that of a shank, an axis, or a plane of rotation.

Standard profile angles are established in connection with standard proportions of gear teeth and standard gear cutting tools. Involute gears operate together correctly after a change of center distance, and gears designed for a different center distance can be generated correctly by standard tools. A change of center distance is accomplished by changes in operating values for pitch diameter, circular pitch, diametral pitch, pressure angle, and tooth thicknesses or backlash. The same involute gear may be used under conditions that change its operating pitch diameter and pressure angle. Unless there is a good reason for doing otherwise, it is practical to consider that the pitch and the profile angle of a single gear correspond to the pitch and the profile angle of the hob or cutter used to generate its teeth.