Hypoid gears are bevel gears with non-intersecting axes where the hypoid ofset is defined as the shortest
distance between these two axes. Hypoid gears are preferred over bevel gears without offset if aspects of
gear noise or of installation space are in focus. Pitting and tooth root breakage are still the two most frequent
failure types occurring in practical applications of bevel and hypoid gears. There are several national and
international standards for the calculation of the load capacity of these gears such as DIN 3991 , AGMA 2003
and ISO 10300. But up to now these standards do not cover bevel gears with offset (hypoid gears). For this
reason a research project was carried out at FZG (Gear Research Centre, Munich, Germany) to analyze the
influence of the hypoid offset on the load capacity. A new calculation method should be developed that is in
principle based on the current version of ISO 10300 but also valid for hypoid gears.