本文件旨在帮助齿轮设计师了解塑料材料独特的物理、机械和热行为。由于成本和性能问题，齿轮应用中塑料材料的使用量大幅增加。不断增长的市场包括汽车、商用机器和消费相关行业。所涵盖的主题包括一般塑料材料性能、齿轮操作条件、塑料齿轮制造、齿轮相关材料性能测试以及典型的塑料齿轮材料。没有关于材料性能的定量细节，也没有对塑料类型的任何比较评估。此类具体信息由材料供应商和齿轮制造商提供。

The purpose of this document is to aid the gear designer in understanding the unique physical, mechanical and thermal behavior of plastic materials. The use of plasticmaterials for gear applications has grown considerably due to cost and performance issues. Growing markets include the automotive, business machine, and consumer - related industries. Topics covered include general plastic material behavior, gear operating conditions, plastic gear manufacturing, tests for gear related material properties, and typical plastic gear materials. There are no quantitative details on material properties nor any comparative evaluations of plastic types. Such specific information is left to be provided by material suppliers and gear manufacturers.