A gear whose teeth are formed on the face of a disk rather than around its rim, meshing at an angle, usually 90 degrees, with a cylindrical pinion. Because the pinion is a plain involute gear, moving it along its own axis does not upset the mesh, which makes face gears tolerant of mounting errors. They appear in rotorcraft split-torque transmissions and in compact right-angle drives.
Heard on the job
Face gear set doesn't care if the pinion floats axially a few thou, so we can lose the shim stack.
Also heard as
- crown gear
- contrate gear