The AGMA Plastics Gearing Committee has brought together technical representatives
from plastic material suppliers, gear manufacturers and designers. This document
represents their efforts to further this exchange of information. It will not supply answers to
many of the questions that arise in the application of plastic materials to gears, but it should
encourage inquiry and information exchange.
One issue that requires special attention is the availability of plastic material properties in
the form mostsuitable for plastic gear design. This includes properties that arecounterparts
of those used in the design of metal gears, and those that are special to plastic materials in
these applications. To a very large extent, plastic gear designers have access only to
property data taken from ASTM tests as reported by material suppliers even though such
tests were created to meet other objectives. It was therefore judged essential to include
brief descriptions of these tests supplemented by comments on any limitations of such test
data when applied to gears. Various industry initiatives are now undeway to develop gear
specific property data, which will in time supplement the information provided here.