The primary benefit of worm gears is their capability to provide high reduction ratios and correspondingly high torque multiplication. They can also be used as swiftness reducers in low- to medium-velocity applications. And, because their decrease ratio is based on the amount of gear teeth by itself, they are more compact than other styles of gears. Like fine-pitch business lead screws, worm gears are usually self-locking, making them perfect for hoisting and lifting applications.

Although the sliding contact reduces efficiency, it provides very quiet operation. (The make use of dissimilar metals for the worm and gear also plays a part in quiet procedure.) This makes worm gears ideal for use where noise should be minimized, such as for example in elevators. In addition, the application of a softer materials for the gear means that it can absorb shock loads, like those experienced in heavy equipment or crushing equipment.

The meshing of the worm and the gear is an assortment of sliding and rolling actions, but sliding contact dominates at high reduction ratios. This sliding action causes friction and high temperature, which limits the productivity of worm gears to 30 to 50 percent. As a way to minimize friction (and for that reason, temperature), the worm and gear are constructed with dissimilar metals – for example, the worm may be made of hardened steel and the gear manufactured from bronze or aluminum.

Like a ball screw, the worm in a worm gear could have a single start or multiple starts – and therefore there are multiple threads, or helicies, on the worm. For a single-start worm, each complete turn (360 degrees) of the worm advances the gear by one tooth. Therefore a gear with 24 teeth provides a gear reduced amount of 24:1. For a multi-start worm, the gear reduction equals the number of teeth on the gear, divided by the amount of begins on the worm. (This is different from most other types of gears, where the gear reduction is usually a function of the diameters of both components.)

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