Split gearing, another technique, consists of two gear halves positioned side-by-side. Half is fixed to a shaft while springs cause the other half to rotate somewhat. This increases the effective tooth thickness so that it completely fills the tooth space of the mating equipment, thereby eliminating backlash. In another edition, an assembler bolts the rotated fifty percent to the fixed half after assembly. Split gearing is generally found in light-load, low-speed applications.

The simplest & most common way to lessen backlash in a pair of gears is to shorten the distance between their centers. This movements the gears into a tighter mesh with low or actually zero clearance between tooth. It eliminates the result of variations in center distance, tooth dimensions, and bearing eccentricities. To shorten the guts distance, either modify the gears to a fixed range and lock them set up (with bolts) or zero backlash gearbox spring-load one against the additional therefore they stay tightly meshed.
Fixed assemblies are usually found in heavyload applications where reducers must invert their direction of rotation (bi-directional). Though "fixed," they may still require readjusting during service to compensate for tooth use. Bevel, spur, helical, and worm gears lend themselves to fixed applications. Spring-loaded assemblies, however, maintain a constant zero backlash and tend to be used for low-torque applications.

Common design methods include short center distance, spring-loaded split gears, plastic fillers, tapered gears, preloaded gear trains, and dual path gear trains.

Precision reducers typically limit backlash to about 2 deg and are used in applications such as instrumentation. Higher precision products that achieve near-zero backlash are found in applications such as for example robotic systems and machine tool spindles.
Gear designs can be modified in a number of methods to cut backlash. Some strategies adapt the gears to a established tooth clearance during preliminary assembly. With this approach, backlash eventually increases because of wear, which requires readjustment. Other designs make use of springs to hold meshing gears at a constant backlash level throughout their assistance life. They're generally limited by light load applications, though.