A spur or helical gear that rotates on its own axis while simultaneously orbiting a central gear. Mounted on a rotating carrier, it meshes with both the inner sun gear and an outer ring gear. This arrangement distributes the load across multiple meshes, allowing for high torque transmission and compact speed reduction in automatic transmissions and heavy equipment final drives.
Heard on the job
When you rebuild the hub, make sure the bearings on each planet wheel are seated properly on the carrier pins.
Also heard as
- planet gear
- planetary gear