When two or more single helical gears arc mounted on the same shaft, the hand of the gears should be selected so as to produce the minimum thrust load.

Crossed-helical, or spiral, gears arc those in which the shaft centerlines arc neither parallel nor intersecting. The teeth of crossed-helical fears have point contact with each other, which changes to line contact as the gears wear in. For this reason they will carry out very small loads and arc mainly for instrumental applications, and are definitely not recommended for use in the transmission of' power. There is on difference between a crossed helical gear and a helical gear until they are mounted in mesh with each other. They are manufactured in the same way. A pair of meshed crossed helical gears usually have the same hand; that is，a right-hand driver goes with a right-hand driven. In the design of crossed-helical gears, the minimum sliding velocity is obtained when the helix angle are equal. However, when the helix angles are not equal, the gear with the larger helix angle should be used as the driver if both gears have the same hand.

Worm gears are similar to crossed helical gears. The pinion or worm has a small number of teeth, usually one to four, and since they completely wrap around the pitch cylinder they are called threads. Its mating gear is called a worm gear, which is not a true helical gear. A worm and worm gear are used to provide a high angular-velocity reduction between non intersecting shafts which are usually at right angle. The worm gear is not a helical gear because its face is made concave to fit the curvature of the worm in order to provide line contact instead of point contact. However’ a disadvantage of worm gearing is the high sliding velocities across the teeth, the same as with crossed helical gears.

Worm gearing are either single or double enveloping. A single-enveloping gearing is one in which the gear wraps around or partially encloses the worm. A gearing in which each element partially encloses the other is, of course, a double-enveloping worm gearing. The important difference between the two is that area contact exists between the teeth of double-enveloping gears while only line contact between those of single-enveloping gears. The worm and worm gear of a set have the same hand of helix as for crossed helical gears, but the helix angles are usually quite different. The helix angle on the worm is generally quite large, and that on the gear very small. Because of this, it is usual to specify the lead angle on the worm, which is the complement of the worm helix angle，and the helix angle on the gear; The two angles are equal for a 90-deg. Shaft angle.