Gears not only transmit the motion and power satisfactorily but also can do so with uniform motion. The design of gears requires an iterative approach to optimize the design parameters that take care of kinematics aspects as well as strength aspects. Moreover, the choice of materials available for gears is limited. Owing to the complex combinations of the above facts, manual design of gears is complicated and time consuming. In this paper, the volume and load carrying capacity are optimized. Three different methodologies (i) MATLAB optimization toolbox, (ii) genetic algorithm (GA), and (iii) multiobjective optimization (NSGA-II) technique are used to solve the problem. In the first two methods, volume is minimized in the first step and then the load carrying capacities of both shafts are calculated. In the third method, the problem is treated as a multiobjective problem. For the optimization purpose, face width, module, and number of teeth are taken as design variables. Constraints are imposed on bending strength, surface fatigue strength, and interference. It is apparent from the comparison of results that the result obtained by NSGA-II is more superior than the results obtained by other methods in terms of both objectives. 1. Introduction Designing a new product consists of several parameters and phases, which differ according to the depth of design, input data, design strategy, procedures, and results. Mechanical design includes an optimization process in which designers always consider certain objectives such as strength, deflection, weight, wear, and corrosion depending on the requirements. However, design optimization for a complete mechanical assembly leads to a complicated objective function with a large number of design variables. So it is a better practice to apply optimization techniques for individual components or intermediate assemblies than a complete assembly. For example, in an automobile power transmission system, optimization of gearbox is computationally and mathematically simpler than the optimization of complete system. The preliminary design optimization of two-stage helical gear train has been a subject of considerable interest, since many high-performance power transmission applications require high-performance gear train. A traditional gear design involves computations based on tooth bending strength, tooth surface durability, tooth surface fatigue, interference, efficiency, and so forth. Gear design involves empirical formulas, different graphs and tables, which lead to a complicated design. Manual design is very difficult
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